UPDATED: 11:58 A.M.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a major victory on Monday, barring states from disqualifying candidates for federal office under a constitutional provision involving insurrection and reversing Colorado’s exclusion of him from its ballot.
The justices unanimously overturned a Dec. 19 decision by Colorado’s top court to kick the former president off the state’s Tuesday Republican primary ballot after finding that the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment disqualified him from again holding public office. The Colorado court had found that Trump took part in an insurrection for inciting and supporting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
The justices determined that only Congress can enforce the constitutional provision against federal officeholders and candidates. But four of the nine justices, including the court’s three liberal members, faulted the rest of the court for announcing rules limiting how the provision may be enforced in the future.
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.
The ruling was issued on the eve of Super Tuesday, the day in the U.S. presidential primary cycle when the most states hold party nominating contests.
It came five days after the justices agreed to decide Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution on charges related to trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. The court, whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three Trump appointees, acted in a speedier manner in deciding the ballot disqualification issue, benefiting him, than it has in resolving the immunity question. Delays in deciding the immunity issue could help Trump by delaying his criminal trial.
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.
Trump welcomed the ruling, saying during an appearance in Florida: “Essentially, you cannot take somebody out of a race because an opponent would like to have it that way.” Trump said he hoped the decision would help unify the country, but then lambasted political opponents and prosecutors behind four criminal cases against him.
Trump was also barred from the ballot in Maine and Illinois based on the 14th Amendment. Those decisions were put on hold pending the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Colorado case.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold expressed disappointment at the ruling “stripping states of the authority” to enforce the disqualification clause.
“Colorado should be able to bar oath-breaking insurrections from our ballot,” Griswold wrote in a social media post.
‘MOMENTOUS AND DIFFICULT ISSUES’
Though the justices unanimously agreed with the result, the three liberal justices, as well as conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, said the court’s opinion decided more than what was necessary to resolve the case by specifying that Section 3 can be enforced only through federal legislation.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson objected to the majority’s “gratuitous” decision to announce rules limiting the way Section 3 can be enforced in the future.
“Today, the majority goes beyond the necessities of this case to limit how Section 3 can bar an oath-breaking insurrectionist from becoming president,” the liberal justices said. “Although we agree that Colorado cannot enforce Section 3, we protest the majority’s effort to use this case to define the limits of federal enforcement of that provision.”
In a concurring opinion, Barrett wrote that “this is not the time to amplify disagreement with stridency. The court has settled a politically charged issue in the volatile season of a presidential election. Particularly in this circumstance, writings on the court should turn the national temperature down, not up,” Barrett wrote.
“For present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity: All nine Justices agree on the outcome of this case. That is the message Americans should take home,” Barrett added.
Trump’s eligibility had been challenged in court by a group of six voters in Colorado – four Republicans and two independents – who portrayed him as a threat to American democracy and sought to hold him accountable for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
The plaintiffs were backed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group.
CREW President Noah Bookbinder emphasized that while the court’s ruling allows Trump back on the ballot, it did not directly address the Colorado Supreme Court’s finding that Trump had engaged in insurrection.
“The Supreme Court had the opportunity in this case to exonerate Trump, and they chose not to do so,” Bookbinder said, adding that, “The Supreme Court removed an enforcement mechanism, and in letting Trump back on the ballot, they failed to meet the moment.”
As lawsuits seeking to disqualify Trump cropped up across the country, it was important for his candidacy to clear any hurdles to appear on the ballot in all 50 states.
Not since ruling in the landmark case Bush v. Gore, which handed the disputed 2000 U.S. election to Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore, has the court played such a central role in a presidential race.
The justices in the immunity case in December declined the prosecutor’s bid to speed up resolution of the matter before a lower court had weighed in, then last week agreed to take up the matter after lower courts had ruled – setting arguments to take place in late April, a much longer timeline than the ballot issue.
Ethan Strimling, one of three former lawmakers behind the disqualification bid in Maine, said Monday’s ruling effectively ended the effort to remove Trump from that state’s ballot.
CAPITOL ATTACK
In a bid to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 election victory, Trump supporters attacked police, broke through barricades and swarmed the Capitol. Trump gave an incendiary speech to supporters beforehand, repeating his false claims of widespread voting fraud and telling them to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” He then for hours rebuffed requests that he urge the mob to stop.
The 14th Amendment was ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War of 1861-1865 in which seceding Southern states that allowed the practice of slavery rebelled against the U.S. government.
In ruling against Trump, Colorado’s top court cited the “general atmosphere of political violence that President Trump created” and that he aided “the insurrectionists’ common unlawful purpose of preventing the peaceful transfer of power in this country.”
During Feb. 8 Supreme Court arguments, Trump’s lawyer said he is not subject to the disqualification language because a president is not an “officer of the United States,” that the provision cannot be enforced by courts absent congressional legislation, and that what occurred on Jan. 6 was shameful, criminal and violent but not an insurrection.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York and John Kruzel in Washington; Additional reporting by Andrew Goudsward, Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Will Dunham)
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a major victory on Monday, barring states from disqualifying candidates for federal office under a constitutional provision involving insurrection and reversing Colorado’s exclusion of him from its ballot.
The justices unanimously overturned a Dec. 19 decision by Colorado’s top court to kick the former president off the state’s Tuesday Republican primary ballot after finding that the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment disqualified him from again holding public office. The Colorado court had found that Trump took part in an insurrection for inciting and supporting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
But four of the nine justices, including the court’s three liberal members, faulted the rest of the court for announcing rules limiting how the constitutional provision may be enforced in the future.
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.
The ruling was issued on the eve of Super Tuesday, the day in the U.S. presidential primary cycle when the most states hold party nominating contests.
The Supreme Court’s decision came five days after it agreed to decide Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution on charges related to trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. The court acted in a speedier manner in deciding the ballot disqualification issue, benefiting Trump, than it has in resolving the immunity question. Delays in deciding the immunity issue could help Trump by delaying his criminal trial.
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 against federal officeholders and candidates.
“BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!,” Trump wrote on his social media platform immediately after the ruling.
Trump was also barred from the ballot in Maine and Illinois based on the 14th Amendment, but those decisions were put on hold pending the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Colorado case.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold expressed disappointment at the ruling “stripping states of the authority” to enforce the disqualification clause.
“Colorado should be able to bar oath-breaking insurrections from our ballot,” she wrote in a social media post.
‘MOMENTOUS AND DIFFICULT ISSUES’
Though the justices unanimously agreed with the result, the three liberal justices, as well as conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, said the court’s opinion decided more than what was necessary to resolve the case by specifying that Section 3 can be enforced only through federal legislation.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson objected to the majority’s “gratuitous” decision to announce rules limiting the way Section 3 can be enforced in the future.
“Today, the majority goes beyond the necessities of this case to limit how Section 3 can bar an oath-breaking insurrectionist from becoming president,” the liberal justices said. “Although we agree that Colorado cannot enforce Section 3, we protest the majority’s effort to use this case to define the limits of federal enforcement of that provision.”
In a concurring opinion, Barrett wrote that “this is not the time to amplify disagreement with stridency. The court has settled a politically charged issue in the volatile season of a presidential election. Particularly in this circumstance, writings on the court should turn the national temperature down, not up,” Barrett wrote.
“For present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity: All nine Justices agree on the outcome of this case. That is the message Americans should take home,” Barrett added.
Trump’s eligibility had been challenged in court by a group of six voters in Colorado – four Republicans and two independents – who portrayed him as a threat to American democracy and sought to hold him accountable for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
The plaintiffs were backed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group.
CREW President Noah Bookbinder emphasized that while the court’s ruling allows Trump back on the ballot, it did not directly address the Colorado Supreme Court’s finding that Trump had engaged in insurrection.
“The Supreme Court had the opportunity in this case to exonerate Trump, and they chose not to do so,” Bookbinder said, adding that, “The Supreme Court removed an enforcement mechanism, and in letting Trump back on the ballot, they failed to meet the moment.”
As lawsuits seeking to disqualify Trump cropped up across the country, it was important for his candidacy to clear any hurdles to appear on the ballot in all 50 states.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority includes three Trump appointees. Not since ruling in the landmark case Bush v. Gore, which handed the disputed 2000 U.S. election to Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore, has the court played such a central role in a presidential race.
The justices in the immunity case in December declined a bid to speed up resolution of the matter before a lower court had weighed in, then last week agreed to take up the matter after lower courts had ruled – setting arguments to take place in late April, a much longer timeline.
CAPITOL ATTACK
In a bid to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 election victory, Trump supporters attacked police, broke through barricades and swarmed the Capitol. Trump gave an incendiary speech to supporters beforehand, repeating his false claims of widespread voting fraud and telling them to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” He then for hours rebuffed requests that he urge the mob to stop.
The 14th Amendment was ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War of 1861-1865 in which seceding Southern states that allowed the practice of slavery rebelled against the U.S. government.
In ruling against Trump, Colorado’s top court cited the “general atmosphere of political violence that President Trump created” and that he aided “the insurrectionists’ common unlawful purpose of preventing the peaceful transfer of power in this country.”
The Supreme Court heard arguments on Feb. 8. Trump’s lawyer argued that he is not subject to the disqualification language because a president is not an “officer of the United States,” that the provision cannot be enforced by courts absent congressional legislation, and that what occurred on Jan. 6 was shameful, criminal and violent but not an insurrection.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York and John Kruzel in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The 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.
Trump was also barred from the ballot in Maine and Illinois based on the 14th Amendment, but those decisions were put on hold pending the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Colorado case.
Trump’s eligibility had been challenged in court by a group of six voters in Colorado – four Republicans and two independents – who portrayed him as a threat to American democracy and sought to hold him accountable for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
The plaintiffs were backed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group.
The ruling came on the eve of Super Tuesday, the day in the U.S. presidential primary cycle when the most states hold party nominating contests. As lawsuits seeking to disqualify Trump cropped up across the country, it was important for his candidacy to clear any hurdles to appear on the ballot in all 50 states.
The Supreme Court resolved the Colorado ballot dispute speedily, a timeline that stands in contrast to its slower handling of Trump’s bid for immunity from criminal prosecution in a federal case in which he faces charges for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss. Trump’s trial has been put on hold awaiting the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision – a benefit for him as he campaigns against Biden.
In the Colorado dispute, the justices agreed to take up the case a mere two days after Trump filed his appeal, fast-tracked arguments and issued the written opinion in just over two months.
The justices in the immunity case in December declined a bid to speed up resolution of the matter before a lower court had weighed in, then last week agreed to take up the matter after lower courts had ruled – setting arguments to take place in late April, a much longer timeline.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority includes three Trump appointees. Not since ruling in the landmark case Bush v. Gore, which handed the disputed 2000 U.S. election to Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore, has the court played such a central role in a presidential race.
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.”
In a bid to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 election victory, Trump supporters attacked police, broke through barricades and swarmed the Capitol. Trump gave an incendiary speech to supporters beforehand, repeating his false claims of widespread voting fraud and telling them to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” He then for hours rebuffed requests that he urge the mob to stop.
The 14th Amendment was ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War of 1861-1865 in which seceding Southern states that allowed the practice of slavery rebelled against the U.S. government.
In ruling against Trump, Colorado’s top court cited the “general atmosphere of political violence that President Trump created” and that he aided “the insurrectionists’ common unlawful purpose of preventing the peaceful transfer of power in this country.”
The Supreme Court heard arguments on Feb. 8. Trump’s lawyer argued that he is not subject to the disqualification language because a president is not an “officer of the United States,” that the provision cannot be enforced by courts absent congressional legislation, and that what occurred on Jan. 6 was shameful, criminal and violent but not an insurrection.
Many Republicans have decried the ballot disqualification drive as election interference, while proponents of disqualification have said holding Trump constitutionally accountable for an insurrection supports democratic values.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court plans to issue at least one ruling on Monday, the day before Colorado holds a presidential primary election in which a lower court kicked Republican frontrunner Donald Trump off the ballot for taking part in an insurrection during the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack.
The Supreme Court, in an unusual Sunday update to its schedule, did not specify what ruling it would issue. But the justices on Feb. 8 heard arguments in Trump’s appeal of the Colorado ruling and are due to issue their own decision.
Colorado is one of 15 states and a U.S. territory holding primary elections on “Super Tuesday.” Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
The Republican Party of Colorado has asked the Supreme Court, whose 6-3 conservative majority include three justices appointed by Trump, to rule before Tuesday in the ballot eligibility case.
During arguments, Supreme Court justices signaled sympathy toward Trump’s appeal of a Dec. 19 ruling by Colorado’s top court to disqualify him from the state’s ballot under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars from holding public 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.”
Trump supporters attacked police and swarmed the Capitol in a bid to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump gave an incendiary speech to supporters beforehand, telling them to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” He then for hours rebuffed requests that he urge the mob to stop.
Anti-Trump forces have sought to disqualify him in more than two dozen other states – a mostly unsuccessful effort – over his actions relating to the Jan. 6 attack. Maine and Illinois also have barred Trump from their ballot, though both those decisions are on hold pending the Supreme Court’s Colorado ruling.
During arguments in the Colorado case, Supreme Court justices – conservatives and liberals alike – expressed concern about states taking sweeping actions that could impact a presidential election nationwide. They pondered how states can properly enforce the Section 3 disqualification language against candidates, with several wondering whether Congress must first pass legislation do enable that.
In another case with high stakes for the election, the Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to decide Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.
The court appears likely to reject Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution, according to legal experts, but its decision to spend months on the matter could aid his quest to regain the presidency by further delaying a monumental criminal trial.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that he should be shielded from prosecution for his effort to reverse Biden’s victory because he was president when he took those actions, a sweeping assertion of immunity firmly rejected by lower courts.
But the Supreme Court’s decision not to schedule its arguments on the issue until late April reduces the chances that a trial on the election subversion charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith could be finished before the presidential election.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Scott Malone and Will Dunham)
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