WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump will remain on the 2024 ballot, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled today.
The ruling rejected the idea that states can keep federal candidates off the ballot by applying Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits candidates from holding federal office if they engaged in “insurrection” against the United States.
“States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency,” the unsigned Trump v. Anderson ruling stated. All nine justices agreed with the decision.
“The terms of the Amendment speak only to enforcement by Congress, which enjoys power to enforce the Amendment through legislation,” the justices ruled.
The ruling stemmed from a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to kick Trump off the 2024 ballot because of his alleged role in an “insurrection” on January 6, 2021. Trump has never been charged or convicted of participating in an insurrection.
Trump called the victory a “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA” on his Truth Social account.
Maine officials also removed Trump from the ballot, but a judge blocked the effort pending the Supreme Court decision. He will appear on both primary ballots.
A Democrat judge in Cook County, Illinois, also ruled in favor of activists who wanted Trump booted from the ballot. All of those attempts are now moot due to the Supreme Court ruling.
The decision comes as Trump moves closer to securing the GOP nomination. He currently has 244 delegates, while Ambassador Nikki Haley has 43. Tomorrow is “Super Tuesday,” when around 900 delegates will be allocated by different GOP primaries in 15 states. Two of those states are Maine and Colorado. Trump needs about 1,000 more delegates to definitively defeat Haley.
A decision to allow Colorado to kick Trump off the ballot could have caused further political instability, a result Justice Amy Coney Barrett alluded to in a concurring opinion. She responded to Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Jackson, who criticized five other justices for ruling that only Congress can decide “insurrection” challenges through legislation. Barrett appeared to agree with the three liberal justices that the Court should not have gone as far, but called on them to tone down the rhetoric.
Justice Barrett wrote:
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. 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.
Conservatives praise ruling
The Supreme Court decision drew widespread praise from conservatives.
“You know the Regime has overreached when even the liberal justices concur,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts wrote.
“Vindication at last. President Trump will remain on the Colorado ballot,” Representative Lauren Boebert wrote. “The SCOTUS has made their ruling official. Yet another swing and miss from the looney left. TRUMP 2024,” the Colorado Republican wrote.
“Stunning unanimous rebuke to the actual authoritarians trying undermine democracy and thwart the will of the people,” Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Removal attempt had drawn widespread criticism
The attempt to remove Trump from the ballot drew criticism not just from Republican Party leaders and conservative activists, but also from the Washington Post and even liberal Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
The far-left Washington Post editorial board noted in December 2023 that “Mr. Trump not been convicted of insurrection either by a jury of his peers or from the bench by a judge; he hasn’t even been charged with it,” after Colorado removed Trump from the ballot.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said she believes Trump engaged in “insurrection” but that she “wants to see it resolved at the ballot box,” so as not to raise questions about the “legitimacy” of the 2024 election.