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The US Supreme Court has struck down efforts by individual states to block Donald Trump from running for president using the Constitution’s sedition clause.
Colorado banned Trump from participating in the Republican primaries, arguing that he incited the 2021 Capitol riot.
The court ruled that only Congress, not the states, had this power.
The Supreme Court’s decision paves the way for Trump to compete in Colorado’s primary elections scheduled for Tuesday.
Trump is the most likely candidate to win the Republican Party nomination, and it seems likely that he will compete again with Democratic President Joe Biden in the general elections scheduled for November.
On Monday, the former president immediately declared victory after the ruling, writing on his social media platform Truth declaring “a huge victory for America.” The message was quickly followed by a fundraising email sent to his campaign supporters.
Speaking from his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, shortly after, he said the resolution was “very well written” and would “go a long way toward uniting our country, which it needs.”
“You can’t take someone out of the race because the opponent wants it that way,” Trump added.
Senior Colorado state official Jena Griswold said she was disappointed by the ruling and that “Colorado should be able to keep unconstitutional incitement of rebellion from the ballot.”
Additionally, the watchdog group that brought the case in Colorado, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a statement that although the court “failed to confront that moment,” it “remains a victory for democracy: history will consider To Trump as an incitement of insurrection.
Two other states, Maine and Illinois, followed Colorado’s lead in banning Trump from the ballot for similar reasons.
Efforts were put on hold in both states while his challenge to the Colorado ruling was escalated to the Supreme Court.
“We conclude that states may disqualify persons who hold or attempt to hold government positions,” the court’s opinion said. “But states do not have the authority under the Constitution to apply Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the presidency.”
The nine justices held that only Congress can enforce the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment against federal officials and candidates.
Part of the Civil War-era amendment – Section 3 – bars federal, state and military officials who “engage in or incite rebellion” against the United States from ever holding office again.
Groups, including Free Speech for the People, have argued that attempting to delay the peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021, meets the amendment’s definition of rebellion.
One of the court’s justices, Amy Coney Barrett, wrote separately that the fact that all nine justices agreed on the outcome of the case is “a message that Americans should take heed.”
“The Court settled a politically charged issue in the turbulent presidential election season,” Barrett wrote. “Particularly in these circumstances, the court’s decisions should lower the national temperature, not raise it.”
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But the court’s three liberal justices argued that the ruling seeks to “decide new constitutional questions to isolate this Court and[ترامب] of future controversy” by declaring “that disqualification for sedition can only occur when Congress enacts a certain type of legislation.”
“In doing so, the majority closes the door on other potential means of enforcement,” they added.
Atiba Ellis, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, told the BBC that while the court’s concerns about excluding Trump from the ballot were “fair,” the ruling “could have far-reaching consequences.”
“It opens the door to questions of constitutional interpretation that were not at issue in this case,” Ellis added. “The decision throws the problem back to Congress at a time when partisan gridlock will ensure inaction on this issue.” He added, “The decision effectively ensures that the issue of the former president’s constitutional capacity under Article 3 will not be resolved before the 2024 elections.”
Republican voters in Colorado and 14 other states will cast their ballots on Tuesday in a marathon contest dubbed “Super Tuesday.”
The former president is widely expected to achieve a landslide victory and defeat his only remaining opponent, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, in every election battle.
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