SCOTUS Rules Trump Can Remain on Ballot Rejecting 14th Amendment Challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held in Trump v. Anderson, 601 U.S. ____ (2024), that states can’t remove former President Donald Trump from 2024 presidential primary ballots for his role in the events of January 6, 2021. In a per curium opinion, the justices unanimously ruled that the states lack the authority to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment against federal officeholders and candidates.

Facts of the Case

Six months before the March 5, 2024, Colorado primary election, four Republican and two unaffiliated Colorado voters filed a petition against former President Trump and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold in Colorado state court. These voters maintain that after former President Trump’s defeat in the 2020 Presidential election, he disrupted the peaceful transfer of power by intentionally organizing and inciting the crowd that breached the Capitol as Congress met to certify the election results on January 6, 2021. They further contend that these actions make former President Trump constitutionally ineligible to serve as President again.

In support of their claims, the voters citeSection 3 of the 14^th Amendment, which provides:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

The state District Court found that former President Trump had “engaged in insurrection” within the meaning of Section 3, but nonetheless denied the voters’ petition. The court held that Section 3 did not apply because the Presidency, which Section 3 does not mention by name, is not an “office under the United States” and the President is not an “officer of the United States” within the meaning of that provision. The Colorado Supreme Court reversed, concluding that for purposes of Section 3, the Presidency is an office under the United States and the President is an officer of the United States.

Supreme Court’s Decision

The Supreme Court unanimously reversed. “We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to holdstateoffice. But States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency,” the per curium opinion stated.

The five members of the majority further concluded that the Constitution makes Congress, rather than the states, responsible for enforcing Section 3 and that it must enact legislation to disqualify a candidate. The majority emphasized that before Section 3 can be enforced, a determination must be made that it applies to a candidate. “The Constitution empowers Congress to prescribe how those determinations should be made. The relevant provision is [the 14th Amendment’s] Section 5, which enables Congress, subject of course to judicial review, to pass ‘appropriate legislation’ to ‘enforce’ the Fourteenth Amendment,” the majority wrote.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson authored an opinion concurring in the judgement but disagreeing with the majority that Congress needed to pass legislation to put the disqualification clause into effect. The justices argued that the Court did not need to reach the issue to decide the case and, in doing so, closed “the door on other potential means of federal enforcement.”

“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,” they wrote.