The Decision & Impact on the 2024 Election
The Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment does not allow individual states to bar Donald Trump from the ballot in the 2024 presidential election for his role in the January 6th Capitol attack.
The ruling centered on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, a post-Civil War era provision which bars people from office if they took an oath to uphold the Constitution but then engaged in an insurrection. The justices decided that only Congress, not states, can enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
This decision overturns a lower court’s ruling and bans Colorado or any other state from removing Donald Trump from the ballot.
Unanimous Judgment, Different Reasoning
Though the decision was anonymous, the justices differed in their reasoning, with the three liberal justices and Trump-appointed Justice Amy Coney Barret asserting that the court went too far in its ruling and should have limited its opinion.
The three justices wrote that the only thing the court needed to do was determine whether Colorado had the power to throw Trump off the ballot. Instead, the court effectively closed almost any challenge to a federal office holder under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — the insurrection clause.
"Today, the majority goes beyond the necessities of this case to limit how Section 3 can bar an oath breaking insurrectionist from becoming President," the justices wrote. "Although we agree that Colorado cannot enforce Section 3, we protest the majority's effort to use this case to define the limits of federal enforcement of that provision. Because we would decide only the issue before us, we concur only in the judgment."
Justice Amy Coney Barrett also argued that the court went too far in its ruling.
"This suit was brought by Colorado voters under state law in state court," Barrett wrote. "It does not require us to address the complicated question whether federal legislation is the exclusive vehicle through which Section 3 can be enforced."
What the Supreme Court Didn’t Decide
Notably, the court did not decide if Trump was an insurrectionist, if Section 3 can apply to the presidency, nor if Jan. 6 was an insurrection.
_
This decision is separate from Trump’s immunity case, which the Supreme Court is scheduled to decide on the week of April 22nd.