Former President Donald Trump celebrated the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision ruling that he is ineligible to run for president in Colorado and other states.
Minutes after the court announced its decision, the 45th president called it “a huge victory for America!!!” on Truth Social.
In a 9-0 decision, the court overturned the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to bar Trump from voting. The Colorado court cited Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, also known as the “Insurrection Clause.”
“This case raises the question of whether states, in addition to Congress, can enforce Title III,” the decision reads in part. “We conclude that a state may disqualify a person holding or seeking to hold state office. However, each state has a constitutional right to Article 3 regarding federal office, particularly the presidential office. I have no authority to force you to do so.”
The decision further found that “nothing in the Constitution delegates to the states the authority to enforce Article III against federal employees and candidates.”
Notably, other states, including Illinois and Maine, also cited the 14th Amendment in their rulings to disqualify Trump from their states’ votes. Monday’s ruling also invalidates those decisions.
9-0 unanimous vote 🚨🚨🚨The Supreme Court rules that Donald Trump can run for president and will remain on the 2024 ballot.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 4, 2024
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in December that President Trump “engaged in insurrection as that term is used in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.” But this was despite the fact that he had not been criminally convicted, much less charged, with incitement of insurrection or seditious conspiracy in any of the federal cases against him. Then, on December 28, Maine Secretary of State Shena Bellows (Democratic) ruled, based in part on Article III, that President Trump’s “preliminary petition is invalid.”
The case is Trump vs. AndersonNo. 23–719, Supreme Court of the United States.
