Trump’s Eligibility for Colorado Ballot Under Consideration in Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court appears likely to permit former president Donald Trump to remain on the Colorado ballot after expressing grave concerns about allowing a single state to disqualify the leading Republican candidate from seeking national office.
The court is considering whether a state court can enforce a rarely invoked, post-Civil War provision of the Constitution to disqualify Trump from returning to the White House. Justices from across the ideological spectrum warned of troubling political ramifications if they do not reverse a ruling from Colorado’s top court, which ordered Trump off the ballot after finding that he engaged in insurrection around the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
During the two-hour argument, some of the justices contended whether a single state should have the authority to decide whether a presidential candidate is disqualified, expressing concerns that this could lead to extreme disarray in the presidential race.
The discussion centered on differing interpretations of the text and history of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who pledged to support the Constitution from returning to office if they betrayed their oath by engaging in insurrection. Constitutional scholars and Colorado voters seeking to remove Trump from the ballot are split on how the provision should be interpreted.
Trump’s attorney argued that the provision does not apply to the president due to his passionate political speech on Jan. 6 not amounting to insurrection, citing distinctions between the president and other officers mentioned in other sections of the Constitution.
Historians and the Colorado voters have cast doubt on the idea that the framers of Section 3 would have created a loophole for an oath-breaking, insurrectionist former president, urging the justices not to create a “special exemption” from the disqualification clause for Trump.
This case is crucial as it challenges the very foundation on which Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was created and how it should be interpreted to disqualify a presidential candidate.
The Supreme Court could announce its decision at any time, and it is expected to resolve the issue in other states with similar challenges to Trump’s eligibility. We will update this developing story as soon as a decision is reached.
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