WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday reinstated former President Donald Trump's name on the primary election ballots in this year's presidential race, rejecting efforts by several states to hold Mr. Trump responsible for the unrest at the Capitol.
A day before the Super Tuesday primary, the justices ruled that states cannot invoke articles of the Constitution written after the American Civil War to remove presidential candidates from the ballot. According to the Supreme Court, that right belongs to Congress.
“Big win for America!!!” wrote Mr. Trump on his social platform immediately after the announcement of the decision.
The ruling ends efforts in states like Colorado, Illinois and Maine to remove Mr. Trump's name from the ballot, as he is the Republican front-runner to win the party's nomination, because of his efforts to overturn the election. of 2020 against Democratic candidate Joe Biden, efforts that culminated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Mr. Trump's case marks the first time the Supreme Court has considered a section of the 14th Amendment, enacted after the Civil War, that sought to bar former officials who held public office who “took part in insurrection” from reinstatement. in such posts.
The Supreme Court of Colorado, in a historic decision, had decided that this article could be applied in the case of Mr. Trump, who, according to this court, instigated the attack on the Capitol. No court in the past has applied this article to a presidential candidate.
Some election observers have warned that a decision that leaves open the possibility of the House of Representatives acting to implement the provision is likely to open up a new dispute over its use to disqualify Mr Trump if he wins the election. . Under one possible scenario, a House of Representatives with a Democratic majority could not certify Mr. Trump's election on January 6, 2025, based on this provision.
This case would then return to the Supreme Court, perhaps amid a deep constitutional crisis.
The parties had asked the court to act quickly. The court heard the parties' arguments on February 8, less than a month ago. Since then, the justices seemed inclined to rule in Mr. Trump's favor.
Mr. Trump's name had been removed from the ballots in Colorado, Maine and Illinois, but those decisions had been suspended pending the Supreme Court's decision.
The case represents the court's most direct involvement in a presidential election since the Bush-Gore case, which was decided 25 years ago, handing the 2000 election victory to Republican candidate George W. Bush.
And this is just one of the issues facing Mr. Trump, or that could affect the likelihood of him becoming president again. In late April, the parties will present arguments in another case that will consider whether Mr. Trump should be prosecuted on charges of election meddling, including for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The timing of the Supreme Court ruling has raised questions about whether Mr Trump will be tried before the November election.
The February oral argument was the first time the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. This article, consisting of only two sentences, aimed at the exclusion from public functions of some members of the Confederation. It states that persons who violate the oath to support the Constitution are prohibited from various positions, including in the legislature, or as electors for the election of the president. However, the position of the president itself is not specifically mentioned there.
Conservative and liberal members of the Supreme Court raised their questions about the case against Mr. Trump. Their main concern was whether Congress would have to act first before the 14th amendment could be invoked. There were also questions as to whether this provision applied to the post of president.
Representatives of the voters who filed the lawsuit to disqualify Mr. Trump from running in Colorado had argued that there was sufficient evidence that the January 6 events were a riot and that they were instigated by Mr. Trump, who had appealed to a crowd of supporters. gathered in front of the White House “to fight with all their might”. They said it would be absurd for Article 3 to apply to any post other than the presidency, or that Mr Trump could be exempt from the article. They also argued that there was no need for any supporting legislation to implement this article.
Mr. Trump's lawyers presented several arguments as to why this amendment could not be used to remove Mr. Trump's name from the ballot. They said Jan. 6 was not a riot, and that even if it was, Mr. Trump did not go to the Capitol or join the rioters. They also said the phraseology used in the amendment excludes the presidency and presidential candidates. They said that even if none of these arguments hold up, Congress should still pass new legislation to reactivate Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Among the members of the Supreme Court are three judges who were appointed by Mr. Trump himself while he was president. They have scrutinized several issues related to Mr. Trump over the years, refusing to support his unsubstantiated claims of rigging the 2020 election, or refusing his request that his tax records be withheld. Congress and prosecutors in New York.
The last time the Supreme Court had such a concrete role in the politics of electing a president was 23 years ago, when it decided 5 to 4 in Bush v. Gore. Of the current members of the court, only Justice Clarence Thomas was then in office. He has rejected calls from some Democratic lawmakers to withdraw from Mr. Trump's case because his wife, Ginni, supported Mr. Trump's bid to overturn the 2020 election and attended the rally ahead of it. the attack on the Capitol.