WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a major victory on Monday, barring states from disqualifying candidates for federal office under a constitutional provision covering insurrection and overturning Colorado’s exclusion from the ballot.
The justices unanimously overturned a Dec. 19 decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to throw the former president out of the state’s Republican primary on Tuesday after finding that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution disqualified him from running for public office again.
A court in Colorado found that Trump participated in the insurrection for inciting and supporting the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
But four of the nine justices, including three liberal members of the court, faulted the rest of the court for announcing rules limiting how the constitutional provision can be enforced in the future.
Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 US election. His only remaining challenger for his party’s nomination is former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.
The decision was made on the eve of Super Tuesday, the day in the US presidential cycle when most states hold party nominating contests.
The Supreme Court’s decision came five days after it agreed to rule on Trump’s request for immunity from prosecution on charges related to trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.
The court acted faster when deciding the question of disqualification from the ballot in favor of Trump than when solving the question of immunity. Delays in ruling on the immunity issue could help Trump delay his criminal trial.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars from office any “officer of the United States” who has taken an oath to “support the Constitution of the United States” and then “engages in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or gives aid or comfort to the enemy.” of which.”
“We have concluded that states may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold public office. But states do not have constitutional authority to enforce § 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the presidency,” the court’s unsigned opinion said.
The justices found that only Congress could enforce the provision against federal officials and nominees.
“BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!,” Trump wrote on his social network immediately after the verdict.
Trump was also barred from voting in Maine and Illinois under the 14th Amendment, but those decisions were put on hold pending the Supreme Court’s decision in the Colorado case.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold expressed disappointment that governing states are “disempowering” enforcement of the disqualification clause.
“Colorado should be able to ban oath-breaking insurgency from our ballot,” she wrote in a social media post.
