The unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court is only specific to Colorado. However, the ruling would also override new challenges by other states to remove Trump from their ballots. Colorado had barred Trump from appearing on the ballot arguing that he had been responsible for inciting the January 6th attempted coup. The court ruled that only Congress can remove candidates from ballots.
The court’s decision clears the way for Trump to compete in the Republican Primary in Colorado on Tuesday.
The ex-president immediately stated on his social media platform, Truth, that the decision was a “big win for America.” The message was followed up by an email fundraising campaign sent to his supporters. “Today’s decision, especially the fact that it was unanimous, 9-0, is both unifying and inspirational for the people of the United States,” Mr Trump told Fox News in an interview on Monday morning.
Colorado’s secretary of state, Jena Griswold, said that she was disappointed in the court’s decision and that “Colorado should be able to bar oath-breaking insurrections from our ballot.” The watchdog group that brought the case in Colorado, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that the Supreme Court had “failed to meet the moment and that it is “still a win for democracy.”
Maine and Illinois had followed Colorado in taking Trump off of the ballot. The processes in both states were put on hold while the case for Colorado was making its way to the Supreme Court.
The official statement from the Supreme Court was “We conclude that states may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office, but states have no power under the Constitution to enforce Sections 3 concerning federal offices, especially the presidency.” The nine judges ruled that only Congress could disqualify a presidential candidate from appearing on the ballot under Section 3.
The Civil War-era amendment, known as Section 3, bars federal, state, and military officials who had engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the US from holding government office.
Certain groups have argued that what happened on January 6th to stop the peaceful transition of power had qualified Trump for disqualification.
Republican voters in Colorado and 14 other states are all going to vote for their Republican candidate in the voting marathon known as Super Tuesday. Trump is expected to sweep all of the votes and defeat his only opposition candidate, Nikki Haley.
