The Supreme Court unanimously decided Monday that Colorado cannot disqualify former President Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment insurrection ban, giving Trump’s bid for a second term as president extra footing.
Monday’s decision, which comes the day before Super Tuesday, effectively ends long-shot efforts that have aimed to keep Trump off the ballots.
In this case, all nine justices sided with Trump, saying that Congress is the body responsible for enforcing the 14th Amendment to disqualify federal candidates and that individual states are not authorized to do so.
“Because the Constitution makes Congress, rather than the States, responsible for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates, we reverse,” reads the unsigned opinion from the court.
Trump, the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, has been accused of encouraging the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol that attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump took a victory lap after the ruling was announced, spending little time speaking on the Colorado victory and instead on the presidential immunity case going before the Supreme Court April 22.
“If a president doesn’t have full immunity, you really don’t have a president,” Trump said. “They have to make decisions, and they have to make them free of all terror that can be reigned upon them when they leave office.”
Trump currently faces more than 90 felony convictions across four different cases.
(The Hill)
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