The Supreme Court made a big decision on Monday about whether states can stop former President Donald Trump from being on the ballot. They said that only Congress can enforce a part of the Constitution called Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. This section was made after the Civil War to stop people who supported the Confederacy from holding office.
All the judges agreed that Colorado can’t take Trump off the ballot. But four judges – Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson – said the court should have stopped there and not decided anything else.
This decision came just before Super Tuesday, when lots of states will have their primary elections. Trump is ahead in the race for the Republican nomination.
The problem started last year in Colorado. Some voters there said Trump shouldn’t be on the ballot because of Section 3. They said this part of the Constitution means he can’t be president again because of what happened on January 6, 2021, when some people attacked the U.S. Capitol.
A court in Colorado agreed that Trump can’t be on the ballot because of Section 3. But they said the president isn’t part of the government and isn’t an officer of the United States, so Section 3 doesn’t apply to him.
The voters then went to the Colorado Supreme Court, which also said Trump can’t be on the ballot. But they waited to see what the Supreme Court would say. Finally, the Supreme Court said Trump can be on the ballot.
The judges explained that Section 3 was made to stop people who supported the Confederacy from being in power after the Civil War. But Congress, not states, can decide if it applies to someone. So, states can’t use Section 3 to stop people from being on the ballot.
The judges said if states could do that, it would cause a lot of problems. It could mean that someone is allowed to run for president in some states but not others. That would make things really confusing and change how people vote.
Trump’s team asked the judges to decide if he really did what Section 3 says. But the judges didn’t talk about that. They only said that states can’t stop him from being on the ballot because of Section 3.
Justice Barrett agreed with this decision but said the judges shouldn’t have talked about who can enforce Section 3. She also said this isn’t the time for judges to argue loudly. Justice Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson agreed that Trump can be on the ballot but didn’t like how the judges decided that. They said it wasn’t necessary to decide so much about Section 3 in this case.
Now, Trump can be on the ballot in Colorado and probably in other states too. This decision comes just before another case about Trump goes to court. This time, it’s about if he tried to change the results of the 2020 election. We’ll have to wait to see what happens with that.
