A Unanimous Vote From the Supreme Court Allows Trump to Run in All 50 States
By: Emily Reid
The Supreme Court of the United States has issued a unanimous decision that Donald Trump cannot be kicked off the primary ballot in Colorado. The 9-0 ruling reverses the decision by the Supreme Court of Colorado, which stated that Trump could not run in the state as he had “engaged in insurrection during the January 6 attack on the US Capitol”. This allowed the former president to appear on every state’s ballot in time for Super Tuesday, taking place on March 5.
Photo by: Mark Thomas from Pixabay
The Colorado decision was the Court’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits insurrectionists from holding office. The Supreme Court concluded that Colorado, or any state does not have the authority to bar an individual from appearing on the ballot. The Court wrote in an unsigned opinion: “We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office. But States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 [of the 14th Amendment] with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency,”
Even with the unanimous vote, there were disagreements within the Supreme Court over whether the majority opinion protected insurrectionists. Five of the justices have declared that Congress must enforce the insurrection clause. The three liberal justices and conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett have objected to this. The liberal justices agreed that allowing Trump to be disqualified from Colorado’s ballot would lead to “chaos,” but disagreed that Congress alone should be tasked with enforcing the 14th Amendment.
Jena Griswold, Colorado’s Democratic secretary of state, said in an interview: “I am disappointed in the decision. I believe Colorado or any state should have the right to bar oath-breaking insurrectionists from our ballots. And I’m concerned that the implications of the decision mean that federal, oath-breaking candidates have a free pass to run for office again,”
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President Biden’s deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks responded to the decision, saying: “It’s not been the way we’ve been planning to beat Donald Trump. Our focus since day one of launching this campaign has been to defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box.”
Following this, the Supreme Court will also hear Trump’s immunity claim in the election interference case. In this, justices will consider whether the former president is immune from prosecution in the case of overturning the election against Biden. This politically charged case is set to begin on the week of April 22 and will influence whether Trump will go on trial before the presidential election in November.
In the federal law case concerning the 2020 election, Trump faces an indictment in Washington D.C. brought by the special counsel, Jack Smith, that charges him with conspiracy to defraud the United States, and conspiracy to obstruct the congressional certification of the election results. Trump and his lawyers have sought to dissolve the charges, arguing that the actions he is charged with fall under the “outer perimeter” of his official duties, and that he could not be prosecuted because of the protections afforded to him as a result of his presidency.
Trump’s trial related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election has been delayed indefinitely while the Supreme Court decides his claim of presidential immunity. This can be seen as an attempt by Trump and his lawyers to push the trial as far into the future as possible, with this being an election year. His lawyers say he cannot have a “fair” trial while running for president. Should he win in November, he would have the ability to shut down the two cases against him involving federal law. However, one legal analysis found that Trump’s D.C. trial remains “likely” to start before the election, but might not end until mid-November, December or beyond.
