The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ordered former President Donald Trump to return to Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot, a day before the Centennial state and 14 other states chose the Republican presidential nominee.
The unanimous ruling also overturned disqualification orders issued by officials and judges in Maine and Illinois in recent weeks.
The unsigned order states that under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, colloquially known as the “insurrection clause” or “disqualification clause,” Congress, not individual states, can disqualify candidates for federal office. It turned out to be only.
“The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision… cannot stand,” the order read. “All nine members of the court agree with the outcome.”
In oral arguments on February 8, most of the justices were open to overturning the Colorado Supreme Court’s December ruling that excluded Trump from the primary ballot.
The Colorado Republican Party appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, while Trump’s lawyers appealed decisions by the Maine secretary of state and an Illinois judge to disbar him.
The Supreme Court made the unusual choice to announce the order without appearing in court, signaling that the justices believe the move needs to be corrected by Super Tuesday.
At least one-third of all Republican delegates (854 of 2,429) will be up for grabs in the March 5 election. Trump already has 244 delegates, while former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has 19.
The Colorado Supreme Court’s Dec. 13 ruling removed Trump from the primary ballot for violating the 14th Amendment’s Insurrection Clause.
The Civil War-era amendment barred former Confederate officers who were involved in “rebellion or insurrection” against the United States from being elected to Congress.
Four of the seven Colorado Supreme Court justices ruled that Trump’s actions prior to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot that halted the certification of the 2020 presidential election amounted to insurrection.
But the unprecedented move to use the provision to determine the eligibility of potential presidential candidates has some legal scholars concerned, arguing that the Supreme Court should quickly reverse the decision. .
Trump’s lawyers made a similar argument in high court oral arguments last month, arguing that the justices’ proposal was reasonable, noting that the Insurrection Clause was intended to be enforced by Congress.
“Only a handful of states will decide the presidential election,” Chief Justice John Roberts said at the time. “That’s a pretty scary outcome.”
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan also told Jason Murray, a lawyer representing Colorado voters seeking to remove Trump from the ballot, that “the question we have to face is why a single state can control who the U.S. “Do I have to decide whether to become president?”
Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump last August on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 Washington, D.C., election, but the former president is not charged with inciting an insurrection but with obstructing an official process. selected.
Trump has now won all but one primary election, making him the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Haley, 52, won her first nomination contest at Deep Blue DC on Sunday night.
