Trump wins Colorado ballot disqualification case at US Supreme Court
U.S. Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a major victory on Monday as he campaigns to regain the presidency, overturning a judicial decision that had excluded him from Colorado's ballot under a constitutional provision involving insurrection for inciting and supporting the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
The justices unanimously reversed a Dec. 19 decision by Colorado's top court to kick Trump off the state's Republican primary ballot on Tuesday after finding that the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment disqualified him from again holding public office.
Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election. His only remaining rival for his party's nomination is former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
«BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!,» Trump wrote on his social media platform immediately after the ruling.
The 14th Amendment's Section 3 bars from office any «officer of the United States» who took an oath «to support the Constitution of the United States» and then «engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.»
«We conclude that states may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office. But states have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the presidency,» the unsigned opinion for the court stated.
The justices found that only Congress can enforce the provision
