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Donald Trump cannot be removed from state ballots in the 2024 election, despite a clause in the Constitution that restricts those who have engaged in an insurrection from holding office, the Supreme Court ruled today.
In a 9-0 decision, the justices ruled that it was up to Congress, and not the states, to make such a determination.
Read the Supreme Court opinion on Trump ballot access.
The decision had been expected, after justices were skeptical of a Colorado Supreme Court decision that removed the former president from the ballot.
Under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment no person shall hold office “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.”
In their opinion, the justices wrote that “it is Congress that has long given effect to Section 3 with respect to would-be or existing federal officeholders. Shortly after ratification of the Amendment, Congress enacted the Enforcement Act of 1870. That Act authorized federal district attorneys to bring civil actions in federal court to remove anyone holding nonlegislative office—federal or state—in violation of Section 3, and made holding or attempting to hold office in violation of Section 3 a federal crime.”
Trump has been restricted from the ballot in Maine, where the secretary of state ruled him disqualified, and Illinois, where a judge last week ruled him ineligible. But those decisions are on hold as the Supreme Court weighs in.
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