Supreme Court Vaporizes Colorado Ballot Gambit

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the former President Donald Trump should remain on the primary ballot in Colorado.

The Supreme Courts per curiam opinion reversed the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that would have barred Trump from running for a second term under Section 3 of the 14 Amendment due to the events of January 6, 2021. 

The Supreme Court argued that the power to restrict ballot access due to such violations lies with Congress. “This case raises the question whether the States, in addition to Congress, may also enforce Section 3. We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office. But States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency,” the decision claimed. “For the reasons given, responsibility for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with Congress and not the States. The judgment of the Colorado Supreme Court therefore cannot stand.”

Two concurring opinions accompanied the per curiam ruling. 

The first, from Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is only a single page. “The Court has settled a politically charged issue in the volatile season of a Presidential election. Particularly in this circumstance, writings on the Court should turn the national temperature down, not up. For present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity: All nine Justices agree on the outcome of this case. That is the message Americans should take home,” Barrett wrote.

The second concurring opinion, from the liberal cohort of justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson, expressed some displeasure over their colleagues’ reasoning. “The majority announces that a disqualification for insurrection can occur only when Congress enacts a particular kind of legislation pursuant t