Photo: Mandel Ngan Agence France-Presse Donald Trump asked the United States Supreme Court to rule on the Colorado court's decision ordering his removal from the ballots in that state. Pictured is the former president in Maryland last February.
Fabien Deglise
March 4, 2024
- United States
The Supreme Court of the United States confirmed Monday morning the eligibility of Donald Trump by unanimously rejecting the decision taken last December by Colorado to remove the name of the former president from the ballots, due to his participation in the insurrection against the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The decision will have effects on several other attempts orchestrated in 36 states to remove the Republican candidate from his party's primaries and, ultimately, from the presidential election next November, by invoking a constitutional point dating back of the post-Civil War era in the United States.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — that’s it — ratified in 1868 aims to prevent former elected officials or public office holders who have “engaged in insurrection” from regaining power. The highest American court, however, has just ruled that it does not apply in the case of Donald Trump.
This is the most significant ruling by the Supreme Court in a presidential election since 2000, when it was forced to decide the outcome of that year's vote. placed at the heart of a controversial recount of the vote in Florida. George W. Bush was then elected president of the United States, facing Democrat Al Gore.
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It also comes on the eve of “Super Tuesday”, a pivotal moment in the current presidential campaign, during which 15 states, including Colorado, will hold their primaries simultaneously in preparation for next November's election.
Not exonerated however
“I am disappointed by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States which deprives the states of the power to apply Article 3 of the 14th Amendment to federal candidates, commented hotly on the X network Jena Griswold, Colorado Secretary of State. [Our state] should be able to exclude from its ballot insurrectionists who betray their oath [to protect the Constitution of the United States]. »
Noah Bookbinder, president of the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which supported the case to declare Trump ineligible in Colorado, said that Trump's return to the ballot, for “technical and legal reasons” did not represent not a “victory for him”. He points out in passing that, while rejecting the Colorado decision, the Court did not decide to exonerate Trump for taking part in an insurrection.
Last week, the nation's highest court announced that it would hear the question of the president's immunity from prosecution for insurrectional acts in a separate case to be heard should begin next April. The decision could be postponed until the end of June.
In their unanimous decision, the six justices forming the Supreme Court's conservative majority, coupled with three more liberal justices, rule that states can invoke Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to prevent insurrectionists from running for public office as part of their own electoral systems, but believe that these same states “have no power under the Constitution to enforce” this point of the Constitution at the federal level, particularly in the context of a presidential election.
Recall that in September 2022, the provision allowed the removal of the commissioner of a rural New Mexico county after he was convicted of trespassing on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 He was the leader of an insurgent group called Cowboys for Trump. This was the first time in over 100 years that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was used. The man took this decision to the Supreme Court.
In her personal opinion published alongside the Court's decision, ultraconservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett, appointed by Donald Trump, indicated that the highest court had just resolved “a politically charged question in the volatile period of a presidential election . Under these circumstances, the Court's writings should lower the national temperature, not raise it. For present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity: all nine justices agree on the outcome of this case. This is the message Americans should take home. »
On his social network, the ex-president greeted the news with capital letters, proclaiming: “Great victory for America”, of which he continues to pose as the ultimate defender.< /p>
During a press conference held at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Donald Trump in the afternoon welcomed the Supreme Court's decision which, according to him, will contribute “greatly to bringing our country together.” , he said, specifying that “this is what the country needs”.
Then, he once again denounced the criminal proceedings brought against him in four separate cases, evoking a Democratic plot hatched by President Joe Biden and aimed at preventing him from returning to the White House . As with many of the populist's statements, there is no evidence to support this claim.