On the eve of Super Tuesday, when 15 states simultaneously organize their primaries for the November presidential election, the US Supreme Court unanimously overturned a Colorado court decision indicting Donald Trump for his actions during the attack on the Capitol there State was declared ineligible.
Published on: March 4, 2024 – 5:13 p.m
4 mins
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, March 4, unanimously overturned a Colorado court decision declaring Donald Trump ineligible for his actions during the January 2021 attack on the Capitol in that northwestern state.
This decision comes on the eve of “Super Tuesday,” when 15 states, including Colorado, will simultaneously organize their primaries for the November presidential election. Without limiting the actions committed by the outgoing Republican president on January 6, 2021, the nine justices hold that only Congress, and not a state, has the authority to remove a candidate from the presidential election ballot.
Donald Trump, the favorite in the Republican primaries, immediately greeted “A great victory for America!!!” on his Truth Social network.
Of the thirty states where he was appealed, only two were successful: Colorado, Maine (Northeast), which also votes Tuesday, and Illinois (North). Several states were still waiting for the Supreme Court's decision to make a final decision.
Legal commentators argued about both the validity and political expediency of these procedures. But everyone agreed with the hypothesis that the conservative-majority court, angered by its controversial 2000 decision that gave Republican George W. Bush victory over Democrat Al Gore, is intent on this, not this suspected of being subject to interference.
“This is in no way a victory for Trump,” Noah Bookbinder, president of the anti-corruption citizens group Crew, responded in a statement at the start of the Colorado trial, emphasizing that the Supreme Court had ruled only “on technical grounds.” legal basis”, but not on facts.
For her part, Colorado elections director Jena Griswold said on social media that she was “disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision to strip states of the authority” to revoke ballots from candidates for federal office.
A constitutional jurisdiction
During the February debates, most of the nine justices, regardless of their orientation, were careful not to enter the minefield of Donald Trump's actions in storming the Capitol. However, they emphasized the legal obstacles and potential consequences of upholding Colorado's decision.
This decision was based on the 14th Amendment of 1868, which was then directed against supporters of the Southern Confederacy, which was defeated in the Civil War (1861-1865). It bars anyone from the highest public office who has committed “rebellion” after taking an oath to defend the Constitution.
“Because the Constitution gives Congress, not the states, the responsibility to enforce Section 3 (of the 14th Amendment) against federal officials and candidates, we reverse the Colorado decision,” the nine justices said in their unanimous decision.
“Because the Constitution gives Congress, not the states, the responsibility to enforce Section 3 (of the 14th Amendment) against federal officials and candidates, we reverse the Colorado decision,” the nine justices said in their unanimous decision.
However, the three progressive justices on the one hand and one conservative justice on the other wrote separate reasons in support of the Supreme Court's decision.
The largely unprecedented nature of the case made any prediction difficult, but many experts attributed the temptation to the nine justices finding a “loophole” to keep Donald Trump's name on the ballot.
Colorado courts held that Donald Trump's actions on January 6, 2021 fell under the 14th Amendment.
That day, hundreds of supporters of the outgoing president, particularly heated by his baseless allegations of election fraud, stormed the Capitol, the shrine of American democracy, to prevent the certification of the victory of his Democratic opponent Joe Biden.
With AFP