Former US President Donald Trump has laughed again after the Supreme Court barred states from excluding him in the ballot over his actions in the January 6 capitol, thus giving him a clean bill to recontest the 2024 Presidency.
This was as the nine justices of the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Trump in a landmark judgement delivered on Monday.
The ruling will obviously impact the status of efforts in several other states to remove the likely GOP nominee from their respective ballots.
The court considered for the first time the meaning and reach of Article 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars former office holders who “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office again.
Recall that on January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of then-U.S. president Donald Trump, two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
Following his interest to recontest the Presidential election, some opponents and states started batting eyes to remove him from the 2024 ballot in over 30 states.
The court overturned the decision of the Colorado Supreme Court, which had barred Trump from serving again as president under Section 3 of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
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This provision prohibits individuals who previously held government positions but later “engaged in insurrection” from running for various offices.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court emphasised that states do not have the authority to determine the eligibility of presidential candidates or other federal office-seekers. Instead, it asserted that Congress is responsible for enforcing Section 3 against all federal officeholders and candidates.
Consequently, the decision applies to all states, not just Colorado, while states retain the power to enforce Section 3 for candidates running for state offices.
The court’s decision focused solely on the legal question of congressional authority, avoiding any analysis of whether Trump’s actions constituted an insurrection.
The timing of the ruling, just one day before the Colorado primary, adds to its significance.
Following the ruling, Trump celebrated the outcome on his social media platform, declaring it a “Big win for America!!!”
The decision not only ensures Trump’s presence on the Colorado ballot but also brings an end to similar cases in other states, including Maine and Illinois, which had followed Colorado’s lead. Both rulings had been temporarily suspended pending the Supreme Court’s decision.
In response to the ruling, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold acknowledged the court’s decision and affirmed that Trump is an eligible candidate in Colorado’s 2024 Presidential Primary.
‘Revive’ congressional bid to disqualify Trump- Democrats
With the Supreme Court ruling that only Congress – and not individual states – can enforce Section 3 to block a candidate from federal office, at least one Democrat is already paying attention.
Maryland lawmaker Jamie Raskin, one of the most vocal anti-Trump voices in Congress, told CNN earlier that he is “working with a number of my colleagues… to revive legislation that we had to set up a process by which we could determine that someone who committed insurrection is disqualified by Section 3”.
“The House of Representatives already impeached Donald Trump for participating in insurrection by inciting it,” he noted.
Raskin was one of the Democratic ‘impeachment managers’ who prosecuted the case in its trial phase before the Senate, which ultimately voted to acquit Trump.
Trump says Supreme Court decision ‘very important’
Trump said this ruling “will go a long way toward bringing our country together, which it needs”.
He claimed even people in Colorado “thought that was a terrible thing they did” and the decision will help unify his supporters.
The former president addressed all the legal cases against him, arguing that the Supreme Court should again side with him over his claim that a president has absolute immunity from criminal prosecutions.
If he is not found to be immune, the role of president will be purely “ceremonial”, he claimed, when the president should be able to “make decisions free of all terror that can reign upon them.”
From a podium at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump described the Supreme Court ruling as a “very important decision, and very well crafted.”
Trump said the decision will “be spoken about 100 years from now, 200 years from now.”
“You can’t take someone out of a race because an opponent would like it that way,” Trump added.
Voters can take a person out of a race very quickly, said Trump, but a court shouldn’t be doing that.
