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The Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump can be on the presidential primary ballot in Colorado, overruling a state court ruling that said otherwise.
Congress, rather than the states, is responsible for enforcing the constitutional provision at issue against federal officeholders and candidates, the court said Monday in a “per curiam” opinion, meaning an unsigned ruling for the court. The court was unanimous in reversing the Colorado ruling against Trump, but there was disagreement about how far the court went. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a concurring opinion saying the majority decided more than it had to, ruling on “novel constitutional questions to insulate this Court” and Trump “from future controversy.”
The decision comes a day ahead of Super Tuesday, when several states are holding their primary contests, including Colorado.
Briefs from outside groups, including historians, argued that Trump is disqualified from office under the 14th Amendment, which bans insurrectionists who had sworn to support the Constitution. But the Feb. 8 oral argument showed the justices’ discomfort with keeping the leading GOP presidential candidate off the ballot.
In December, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump is disqualified, citing the insurrectionist ban, but placed its ruling on hold pending Trump’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Challenges to Trump’s eligibility have been pending across the country, creating a need for the U.S. Supreme Court justices to settle the issue nationwide. Illinois recently joined Colorado and Maine in deeming Trump ineligible, and those other states’ decisions have also been on hold pending the former president’s appeal.
Monday’s ruling in Trump v. Anderson follows the justices’ decision last week to take up Trump’s immunity bid in the federal election interference case, setting argument for the…
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