The Supreme Court Decision on Trump’s Primary Ballot Access and the 2024 Election: A decision to affirm federal authority
In early February, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the Colorado case to exclude former President Donald Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot. On March 4, the Court delivered a unanimous decision to reverse the Colorado verdict.
Beginning with a case in Colorado’s Supreme Court in December 2023, lawsuits and movements by state election officials in over a dozen US states have determined that former President Donald Trump’s role in the January 6 riots at the US Capitol constitute him engaging in insurrection, thereby violating a Fourteenth Amendment clause, known as Section 3, that prohibits “insurrectionists” from holding public office. The unanimous decision, which likely required wrangling on the part of the Chief Justice, sends a message to the country that the matter is resolved.
Initially, Colorado’s argument was seen as a way to keep Trump off the ballot. Through the course of the US Supreme Court oral arguments, however, the Justices determined there was not a constitutional basis for states to enforce Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment against presidential candidates—that job was left to Congress. The Court almost entirely avoided the question of whether or not insurrection had occurred.
Yesterday’s decision reaffirmed what Supreme Court observers of oral arguments presumed—that state courts would not be allowed to remove a presidential candidate. While Justices Kagan, Jackson, and Sotomayor concurred with the judgment, they clarified that they believe their fellow Justices went too far in deciding how Section 3 of the 14th Amendment could be administered by Congress. Justice Barrett concurred with the three Justices’ basic assertion, but she penned her own opinion, suggesting the Kagan, Jackson, and Sotomayor opinion could be viewed as politically charged.
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