Donald Trump wins US Supreme Court fight to remain on ballots ahead of Super Tuesday primaries

Donald Trump wins US Supreme Court fight to remain on ballots ahead of Super Tuesday primaries

The US Supreme Court has handed Donald Trump a major victory, ruling he cannot be disqualified under a constitutional clause referencing insurrection.

The case was prompted by a decision from the Colorado Supreme Court to exclude him from the state’s ballot.

The justices of the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the decision by Colorado’s top court to kick the former president off the state’s Tuesday Republican primary ballot after finding that the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment disqualified him from again holding public office.

The Colorado court had found that Mr Trump took part in an insurrection for inciting and supporting the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.

The 14th Amendment’s Section 3 bars from office any “officer of the United States” who took an oath “to support the Constitution of the United States” and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof”.

But the Supreme Court justices determined that only Congress can enforce the constitutional provision against federal office holders and candidates.

“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 unsigned opinion for the court stated.

Mr Trump, who is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the US election this year, welcomed the ruling.

“Essentially, you cannot take somebody out of a race because an opponent would like to have it that way,” he said during an appearance in Florida.

Mr Trump said he hoped the decision would help unify the country, but then lambasted political opponents and prosecutors behind four criminal cases against him.

The former real estate mogul was also barred from the ballot in Maine and Illinois based on the 14th Amendment. Those decisions were put on hold pending the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Colorado case.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold expressed disappointment at the ruling “stripping states of the authority” to enforce the disqualification clause.

“Colorado should be able to bar oath-breaking insurrections from our ballot,” Ms Griswold wrote in a social media post.