 "US SC keeps Trump on the ballot: What this means for 2024 race")
“Fight your fight yourself. Don’t use prosecutors and judges to go after your opponent to try and damage your opponent so you can win an election.”
This is what Donald Trump told US president Joe Biden shortly after the Supreme Court ruled that the former president and Republican frontrunner for the 2024 polls could not be kept off the ballot in Colorado .
The US supreme court’s unanimous decision overturns a ruling from the Colorado court which had said that Trump could not run because he had engaged in insurrection during the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
We take a closer look at the US supreme court’s ruling on the matter and how it will impact the presidential polls, scheduled in November.
What the supreme court said?
In December 2023, Colorado pushed Donald Trump off the state’s primary ballot. And this was upheld by the Colorado supreme court under the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment prohibits former high-ranking government officials who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution of the United States from serving in high office again. The court determined that Trump’s incitement of the 6 January, 2021, attack on the Capitol meets the Constitution’s definition of an “insurrection.”
However, Trump’s legal team took the matter to the US supreme court and on 4 March (Monday), the country’s highest court reversed the decision, saying Trump was wrongly removed from Colorado’s primary ballot last year.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office. But States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency,” the court said. Congress, the court said, had to enact the procedures for disqualification under Section 3.
Interestingly, the court’s three liberal-leaning justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — said that while they agreed the Colorado decision couldn’t stand, they were at odds with the court’s majority over their determination that only Congress can enforce Section 3.
Allowing Colorado to keep Trump off the ballot, they agreed, would “create a chaotic state-by-state patchwork, at odds with our nation’s federalism principles. That is enough to resolve this case.”
How did Trump react?
Shortly after the US supreme court gave its decision, clearing Trump ahead of Super Tuesday , when he is expected to move closer to clinching the Republican nomination, the former president took to his social media website, Truth Social, and wrote: “Big win for America.”
Later, he addressed the media and his supporters from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and hailed the court for its decision. “I want to start by thanking the supreme court for its unanimous decision today. It was a very important decision, very well crafted. I think it will go a long way toward bringing our country together, which our country needs,” he said.
He added, “Essentially, you cannot take somebody out of a race because an opponent would like to have it that way. And it has nothing to do with the fact that it’s the leading candidate, whether it was the leading candidate or a candidate that was well down on the totem pole. You cannot take somebody out of a race.”
“The voters can take the person out of the race very quickly. But a court shouldn’t be doing that. And the Supreme Court saw that very well,” Trump further said. “And I really do believe that will be a unifying factor because while most states were thrilled to have me know, there were some that didn’t and they didn’t want that for political reasons.”
Trump also had a message for Biden during his address. He told the US president, “Stop weaponisation. Fight your fight yourself. Don’t use prosecutors and judges to go after your opponent to try and damage your opponent so you can win an election,” he said. “Our country is much bigger than that.”
But what does the court’s ruling mean for Trump?
While many have dubbed the court’s decision as a landmark one, what does it actually mean for Trump, and more importantly, the 2024 US presidential elections?
For starters, the court has ruled off the possibility of him being removed from the ballot in Colorado. Effectively, it also stops the efforts to kick Trump off the ballot in Illinois, Maine and other states. The decision ends the efforts to prevent Trump’s White House return under the 14th Amendment, unless Congress enacts legislation to enforce the provision.
The court’s decision is also a huge boost for Trump’s morale as well as his 2024 run. Pundits note that Trump will use the ruling to his advantage, garnering more support from his followers and pushing the narrative that Biden is weaponising the judiciary against him.
The decision also places significant limits on any effort — including by Congress — to prevent the former president from returning to office, as NBCNews reported. The US website explained that should Trump win the presidential election and lawmakers then seek to not certify the results and prevent him from taking office because he “engaged in insurrection” under Section 3 of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, the decision could foreclose that action.
In fact, the court’s ruling removed one of the many obstacles on Trump’s path back to the White House. He faces a combined 91 criminal counts across four cases — one in Washington, DC, the other in New York, the third in Georgia and the fourth in Florida. However, the cases have been pushed back with Trump’s first criminal trial to be in the New York hush money case , set to begin on 25 March.
What have others said?
While Trump and his followers have praised the US supreme court for their decision, there are others who expressed disappointment, while others expressed concern about the future of US democracy.
Norma Anderson, the lead plaintiff in the Colorado case and a former Republican leader in the state’s House and Senate, in a statement said: “Today’s decision does not change this fact: Donald Trump engaged in insurrection against the United States Constitution. I served in public office for decades as a Republican, never putting my party or personal interests ahead of my duties to Colorado or our country. In light of today’s ruling, I urge my fellow Republicans to recognise the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy and do the same.”
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a liberal watchdog group, who had backed the Colorado plaintiffs also said that the Supreme Court had “failed to meet the moment” by letting Trump back on the ballot.
Even Colorado’s secretary of state Jena Griswold expressed her disappointment, saying on X, “Colorado should be able to bar oath-breaking insurrections from our ballot.
There were also others who said that the court’s decision was telling of US democracy. Thomas Keck, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, told Al Jazeera, “It has been three years [since 6 January], and Trump has faced almost zero consequences. That is a bad sign for the health of the country’s democratic institutions.”
And how did Biden react? While the US president himself remained mum, his campaign manager, Quentin Fulks told MSNBC, “We don’t really care. It’s not been the way we’ve been planning to beat Donald Trump. Our focus since day one of launching this campaign has been to defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box.”
With inputs from agencies
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