Donald Trump cannot be kicked off presidential ballots, Supreme Court rules, handing Republican huge election boost
4 March 2024, 15:21 | Updated: 4 March 2024, 15:54
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled Donald Trump cannot be removed from any presidential election ballots - reversing Colorado's decision to prevent him from standing for election following the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Monday's decision is a huge boost to the former president after the court ruled unanimously on the idea that Trump could not be unilaterally removed from the ballot.
The ruling reversed the Colorado Supreme Court decision which determined Trump violated the “insurrectionist clause” and could not serve again as president under section 3 of the Constitution's 14th Amendment.
The decision now vanishes many of the legal threats nationwide that have plagued the Republican's presidential campaign.
Trump still faces four other legal challenges, however - including a federal election subversion case that covers some of the former president's conduct during the January 6 riots.
It comes a day before the Super Tuesday primaries where around a third of all available delegates are up for grabs in primaries and caucuses across the country.
Colorado's Supreme Court, in a first-of-its-kind ruling, had previously decided that the provision, Section 3, could be applied to Trump, who that court found incited the Capitol attack. No court before had applied Section 3 to a presidential candidate.
Some election observers have warned that a ruling requiring congressional action to implement Section 3 could leave the door open to a renewed fight over trying to use the provision to disqualify Trump in the event he wins the election.
In one scenario, a Democratic-controlled Congress could try to reject certifying Trump's election on January 6 2025 under the clause.
The issue then could return to the court, possibly in the midst of a full-blown constitutional crisis.
Both sides had requested fast work by the court, which heard arguments less than a month ago, on February 8. The justices seemed poised then to rule in Trump's favour.
Trump had been kicked off the ballots in Colorado, Maine and Illinois, but all three rulings were on hold awaiting the Supreme Court's decision.
Read More: Minister Bim Afolami says tweet in which he referred to Donald Trump as 'a cancer' is appropriate
The case is the court's most direct involvement in a presidential election since Bush v Gore, a decision delivered a quarter of a century ago that effectively handed the 2000 election to Republican George W Bush.
And it is just one of several cases involving Mr Trump directly or that could affect his chances of becoming president again, including a case scheduled for arguments in late April about whether he can be criminally prosecuted on election interference charges, including his role in the January 6 Capitol attack.
The timing of the high court's intervention has raised questions about whether Mr Trump will be tried before the November election.
The arguments in February were the first time the high court had heard a case involving Section 3.
