The US Supreme Court ordered former President Donald Trump back on the 2024 primary ballot in Colorado on Monday, the day before the Centennial State and 14 others pick their Republican nominees for president.
The unanimous ruling also overturns disqualification orders handed down by officials and judges in Maine and Illinois in recent weeks.
The unsigned order found that only Congress, not individual states, can disqualify candidates for federal office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, known colloquially as the Insurrection Clause or the Disqualification Clause.
“The judgment of the Colorado Supreme Court … cannot stand,” the order read. “All nine Members of the Court agree with that result.”
The US Supreme Court ordered former President Donald Trump back on the 2024 primary ballot in Colorado on Monday, the day before the Centennial State and 14 others pick their Republican nominees for president.REUTERS
The 77-year-old ex-president crowed “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!” on his Truth Social account minutes after the ruling.
“Today’s unanimous Supreme Court decision underscores the bedrock principles of our democracy and the rule of law,” added Harmeet K. Dhillon, the founder and managing partner of the Dhillon Law Group, which is counsel of record for Trump’s 14th Amendment cases.
“This victory is not just for President Trump but for the integrity of our electoral system and the rights of voters across the country. The attempt to use the 14th Amendment in this manner was a dangerous overreach that, if left unchallenged, could have set a perilous precedent for future election.”
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, in a statement following the decision, announced Trump was now “an eligible candidate” in the state’s 2024 presidential primary.
While all nine justices agreed that Trump should be on the ballot, there was sharp disagreement from the three liberal justices — Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — as well as a milder dissent from conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, all of whom argued that their colleagues went too far in determining what Congress must do to disqualify someone from federal office.
“Today, the majority goes beyond the necessities of this case to limit how Section 3 can bar an oathbreaking insurrectionist from becoming President,” the liberals wrote.
During Feb. 8 oral arguments, the majority of the justices had signaled openness to reversing the Dec. 19 ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court to kick Trump off the primary ballot.
The Colorado Republican Party appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, while Trump attorneys appealed the decision by Maine’s secretary of state and an Illinois judge to disqualify him.
The Supreme Court made the unusual choice to announce the order while not taking the bench, implying that the justices believed it necessary to redress the move before Super Tuesday.
The unanimous ruling also overturns disqualification orders handed down by officials and judges in Maine and Illinois in recent weeks.REUTERS
At least one-third — 854 of 2,429 — of all Republican delegates will be up for grabs during the March 5 contests. Trump has already won 244 delegates, while former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has nabbed 19.
Four of the seven Colorado justices ruled that Trump, 77, had violated Section 3 through his actions in the lead-up to and during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, which delayed the certification of former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
The clause, ratified in 1868, barred former Confederate officers from being elected to Congress if they were found to have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” against the US.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, in a statement following the decision, announced Trump was now “an eligible candidate” in the state’s 2024 presidential primary.AP
The Colorado court’s unprecedented move to use the clause to determine the eligibility of a leading presidential candidate concerned legal scholars, who argued the Supreme Court should swiftly overturn the decision.
Trump’s attorneys made the same case in oral arguments last month before the high court, while also pointing out that the Insurrection Clause was meant to be enforced by Congress — reasoning which the justices suggested was sound.
Four of the seven Colorado Supreme Court justices ruled that Trump’s actions in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, which delayed the certification of Biden’s 2020 victory, constituted insurrection.AFP via Getty Images
“It’ll come down to just a handful of states that are going to decide the presidential election,” Chief Justice John Roberts said at the time. “That’s a pretty daunting consequence.”
“The question you have to confront,” liberal Justice Elena Kagan also told attorney Jason Murray, who represents Colorado voters seeking to remove Trump from the ballot, “is why a single state should decide who gets to be president of the United States.”
Special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump last August for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election in Washington, DC, but opted to prosecute the former president for obstructing an official proceeding, not inciting an insurrection.
Trump’s lawyers have since appealed those charges to the Supreme Court, arguing the former president is immune from criminal prosecution for actions they claim were within the “outer perimeter” of his official duties.
The high court will hear oral arguments for that case on April 22.
In the same month, justices will also consider an appeal from one of the more than 1,200 people charged in the Capitol riot, which could upend cases brought against more than 300, including Trump.