The US Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that states do not have the authority to independently disqualify Donald Trump from the ballot.
The decision emphasises that only Congress has the power to make such determinations.
The US Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a major victory on Monday, barring states from disqualifying candidates for federal office under a constitutional provision involving insurrection, and reversing Colorado’s exclusion of him from its ballot.
The justices unanimously overturned a December 19 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 Trump took part in an insurrection for inciting and supporting the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
Four of the nine justices, including the court’s three liberal members, faulted the rest of the court for announcing rules limiting how the constitutional provision may be enforced in the future.
Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 US election. His only remaining rival for his party’s nomination is former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
