The Supreme Court decided on Monday (4) that states cannot prevent former President Donald J. Trump from running for another term, rejecting a challenge to his eligibility that threatened to upend the presidential race by removing the former president from ballots nationwide.
Although the justices presented different reasons, the decision was unanimous. All opinions focused on legal issues and none took a position on whether Trump had engaged in an insurrection.
All justices agreed that states individually cannot bar presidential candidates under a constitutional provision, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits rebels from holding public office.
However, a majority of five justices, in an unsigned opinion, went on to say that Congress must act to enforce Section 3.
“The Constitution makes Congress, not the states, responsible for enforcing Section 3,” wrote the majority, adding that detailed federal legislation is needed to determine who could be disqualified under the provision.
“The court today needed to resolve only a single question: whether a state individually can keep off its ballots a presidential candidate who has been found to have engaged in an insurrection,” the justices wrote.
By deciding the case based solely on this legal question, the court avoided any analysis or determination on whether Trump’s actions constituted an insurrection.
The decision comes just one day before the Colorado primaries.
Minutes after the decision, Trump hailed the ruling in an all-caps post on his website and social media, writing: “Great victory for America!!!”.
Source: The New York Times and CBS News