Former U.S. President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the “Get Out the Vote” rally in Conway, South Carolina, on February 10, 2024.
Julia Nickinson | AFP | Getty Images
The Supreme Court's decision means other states cannot invoke the Constitution's insurrection clause to bar Trump or other candidates from the presidential ballot.
“A huge victory for America!!!” President Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social in response to the ruling.
Decision in Trump's favor, meaning that votes cast by Trump in Tuesday's vote will be counted for the former president. —That wasn't surprising.
During oral arguments in the case on February 8, many of the court's nine justices expressed skepticism about the Colorado Supreme Court's rationale and procedure for disqualifying Trump from voting.
“I think the question we have to face is why should a single state decide who becomes president of the United States,” said Justice Elena Kagan, one of the court's more progressive members. said in a hearing to the lawyer. Six Colorado voters called for Trump to be disqualified.
After Colorado banned Trump from voting, two other states, Maine and Illinois, followed suit.
But those decisions were put on hold pending an appeal by Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.
Colorado Secretary of State Jenna Griswold, center, speaks with members of the media outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on Thursday, February 8, 2024.
Nathan Howard | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The three states' decisions to block Mr. Trump's vote were all based on interpretations of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and are now invalidated by Monday's Supreme Court ruling.
The article states that “no person'' may become an officer of the United States if, after previously taking the oath of federal office, he “engaged in rebellion or insurrection'' against the United States.
In a November ruling, a Denver District Court judge ruled that despite his belief that Trump “engaged in insurrection” by inciting the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, The court ruled that it may appear on the ballot.
The deadly attack on the Capitol was carried out by Trump supporters in an effort to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over the sitting president. All I had to do was delay the process by a few hours.
A subsequent Senate report found that at least seven people were killed and more than 170 police officers were injured in connection with the attack.
In the weeks before the riot, Mr. Trump falsely claimed that Mr. Biden's victory was the result of widespread voter fraud. He also worked on a pressure campaign against Vice President Mike Pence and state election officials to undo Biden's victory.
Following the Denver judge's ruling last November, the Colorado Supreme Court reversed the decision in a 4-3 decision and removed Trump from the primary ballot.
The Colorado High Court said there was significant evidence that President Trump staged an insurrection.
“We do not reach this conclusion lightly,” the state Supreme Court said in its majority opinion. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the issues before us and, equally, without fear or favor, we will continue to challenge the public to the decisions that the law requires us to make. We are also mindful of our solemn obligation to apply the law without being swayed by reaction.”
The court immediately suspended the ruling to give President Trump time to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which President Trump did shortly after.
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