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Donald Trump cannot be removed from state ballots in the 2024 election, despite a clause in the Constitution that restricts those who have engaged in an insurrection from holding office, the Supreme Court ruled today.
In a 9-0 decision, the justices ruled that it was up to Congress, and not the states, to make such a determination.
Read the Supreme Court opinion on Trump ballot access.
The decision had been expected, after justices were skeptical of a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that removed the former president from the ballot. Other states, however, had reached alternate conclusions that kept Trump on their ballots.
Some legal scholars had held that Trump could be removed from the ballot following his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and his conduct on January 6, 2021, when he urged his supporters to march to the Capitol. There, rioters stormed House and Senate chambers as lawmakers were finalizing the electoral vote count in favor of Joe Biden.
Under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment no person shall hold office “having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
In their opinion, the justices wrote that “it is Congress that has long given effect to Section 3 with respect to would-be or existing federal officeholders. Shortly after ratification of the Amendment, Congress enacted the Enforcement Act of 1870. That Act authorized federal district attorneys to bring civil actions in federal court to remove anyone holding nonlegislative office—federal or state—in violation of Section 3, and made holding or attempting to hold office in violation of Section 3 a federal crime.”
Trump has been restricted from the ballot in Maine, where the secretary of state ruled him disqualified, and Illinois, where a judge last week ruled him ineligible. But those decisions are on hold as the Supreme Court weighs in.
In a concurring opinion, the court’s three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote that while they agreed that the Colorado decision should be overturned, given that it would create a “chaotic state-by-state patchwork,” they found fault in the way that the majority “opines on which federal actors can enforce Section 3, and how they must do so.”
“The majority announces that a disqualification for insurrection can occur only when Congress enacts a particular kind of legislation pursuant to Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. In doing so, the majority shuts the door on other potential means of federal enforcement. We cannot join an opinion that decides momentous and difficult issues unnecessarily, and we therefore concur only in the judgment,” they wrote.
The decision is the first major ruling that will impact the 2024 election. Last week, the court announced that it would hold oral arguments the week of April 22 on whether Trump is immune from criminal prosecution over his efforts to remain in power after the last presidential election. By not hearing the immunity question until later next month, the Supreme Court’s scheduling has pushed Trump’s trial on January 6th conspiracy charges until later in the summer or fall, and possibly until after the November election.
Following the Supreme Court’s opinion, Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!”
Harmeet Dhillon, Trump’s attorney, said in a statement, “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.”
