Trump Free To Contest Presidential Election – U.S. Supreme Court Rules

The Supreme Court of the United States has granted former President Donald Trump a major victory by barring States from disqualifying him from running for the November 5, 2024 presidential election.

Trump was barred from the ballot in Maine and Illinois based on the 14th Amendment but, the decisions were put on hold pending the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Colorado case.

The ruling was issued on the eve of the Super Tuesday, the day of the U.S. presidential primary cycle when most states hold party nominating contests.

It also came five days after the justices agreed to decide on Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution on charges related to trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.

In its judgement delivered on Monday, March 4, 2024, the apex Court of the United States overturned a December 19 decision by the Colorado’s top court to kick Trump off the State’s Tuesday Republican primary ballot after finding that the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment disqualified him from holding public office again.

The Colorado court had noted that Trump took part in an insurrection for inciting and supporting the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

The justices of the Supreme Court in unanimously overturned the Colorado’s top court decision and declared that only the Congress can enforce the constitutional provision against federal officeholders and candidates.

Four of the nine justices, including the court’s three liberal members also faulted the rest of the court for announcing rules limiting how the provision may be enforced in the future.

Former President Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination expected to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5, 2024 U.S. election. Trump’s only remaining rival for his party’s nomination is former South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley.

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.

Reuters report that delays in deciding the immunity issue could help Trump by delaying his criminal trial, adding that 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 the four criminal cases against him.