Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 4, 2024 / 12:33 pm (CNA).
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Monday that states cannot remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot ahead of the 2024 elections.
The 9-0 decision, issued Monday morning, reversed a December 2023 ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court that had disqualified Trump from that state’s ballot. That order had directed state authorities to not list him on the 2024 presidential ballot and to not count any write-in votes for him.
The Colorado decision claimed the state had the authority to bar Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment for his role in allegedly inciting an insurrection against the federal government on Jan. 6, 2021.
After the Colorado ruling, an Illinois judge issued a similar order, while Maine’s attorney general said the state would bar Trump from the ballot. Several other states signaled similar plans.
The Supreme Court justices this week argued that while states have the authority under the 14th Amendment to bar individuals from state office, they do not have the power to bar anyone from federal office, with that authority being held by Congress alone.
“Nothing in the Constitution delegates to the states any power to enforce Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates,” the court wrote. “It would be incongruous to read this particular amendment as granting the states the power — silently no less — to disqualify a candidate for federal office.”
“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.”
While the decision was unanimous, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a separate concurring opinion in which they said that while they agree states do not have the authority to keep individuals from federal office, they believe that authority is held by other federal powers in addition to Congress.
The decision comes as Trump is widely expected to dominate the Super Tuesday Republican primaries this week. Trump has won every state Republican primary thus far, losing only one primary in Washington, D.C., to former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley on Sunday.
Leading Haley by more than 60 percentage points in the latest 538 poll, Trump is expected to once again be the Republican Party’s candidate for president in 2024, setting up a rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden in November.
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With this UNANIMOUS decision by the SUPREME Court – The excrement has officially hit the air circulator in leftie circles, which means that wailing and the knashing of teeth can be expected next.
The position of the Supreme Court is to let the voters decide. Thus, keep Trump on the ballot. Given, this was a unanimous decision with even the liberal Justices voting in favor of keeping Trump on the ballot,it should not be taken as an endorsement.
The position of the Supreme Court is that the states can’t meddle in Federal elections and have no constitutional authority to enforce Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. Letting the voters decide may (or may not) be a by-product of that constitutional arrangement. The decision endorses the constitution; Trump is (merely) the person who raised the question.
The dysfunctional and disgraced US Supreme Court continues to play to Trump’s delay tactics. They decided to take up Trump’s IMMUNITY case and delayed oral arguments for 7 weeks! until April 26. Trump’s lawyers are salivating with joy while they game the legal system to delay, delay, delay until after the 2024 election. With 91 criminal indictments in for jurisdictions, the lawyers are complicit in Trump’s criminal acts. Everyone deserves their “day in court”, even the people. Justice delayed is justice denied!
Your comments remind me of the saying “when you scratch a liberal you find a Fascist.
Remember that historically the “Fascists” were the far right, not the left. But also note that the political spectrum is configured in a circle, not a line, and the ends meet and become indistinguishable. Both are authoritarian dictatorship , so If we want to maintain a democracy we must renounce both extremes and learn to respect each other and compromise. Both Marxism and Fascism are incompatible with Democracy.
Fascists were historically and remain on the Left because of their ideologies that promote more government control over all walks of life. So for instance we had the Far Left Socialists of authoritarian Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Fascist Italy.
Now, if you favor the ongoing false narrative propaganda which wrongly maintains that Hitler and Mussolini were on the far right, then you get easily duped into also believing that Fascism was/is a right wing ideology which it never was.
Also keep in mind that as the great Benjamin Franklin himself made clear in a famous comment, the United States was established as a Republic…”if you (meaning we the people) can keep it.” It is not a democracy, but it does have many democratic elements. As such, the United States can be accurately described as a democratic Republic.
If only we lived in a democracy…it would be a leftist’s dream. Two wolves and a lamb deciding on what to have for lunch.
Fortunately we live in a Constitutional Republic.
How is a 9-0 unanimous decision disgraceful? It’s not about Trump, it’s about the Constitution, and it was the right call. If you could put your TDS on hold for a few minutes, that would be clear to you.
You can say it was the right decision technically; you can say it was the right decision morally; you can say the decision will have a good effect. Please, however, understand that those three claims are not identical. As for it being a 9-0 decision, that does not prove it was a good decision technically, morally, or in its effects; all it does is make it binding for the foreseeable future. Many things that will be binding for the foreseeable future are, however, entirely disgraceful.
The people decide who to put on the ballot in a representative republic. The decision was legally and morally correct, your sophistry and hand-wringing aside.
I see why SCOTUS has ruled 9-0 on Trump remaining on the Colorado ballot. States cannot decide on a candidate for a federal election.
I am stunned that they would delay hearings on this seriously flawed, but enormously important case, (ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY), CASE for more than seven weeks when history shows they can move quicker.
The court could have moved faster. It has historically done that in other BIG CASES with political ramification. Indeed, in Bush v. Gore the court decided the 2000 election in THREE DAYS. And in the Watergate tapes case, the court ruled against President Nixon 16 days after oral argument.
With the possibility of the E. Jean Carroll rape case, Trump has been given enormous latitude on egregious in-your-face statements and actions. Defying numerous gag orders with impunity. Disparaging and threatening the families’ lives of witnesses, jurists, juries. You or I would be in jail ON DAY ONE!
The court has taken us down the primrose path. After delay, delay, delay will justice ever be served? Justice delayed is justice denied!
Just the facts!
Thank you
It sounds to me Mr. Morgan like the Supreme Court is functioning pretty well.
Perhaps we can turn this back over to the American voters and go forward?
You’re blinded by your extreme bias, my friend.
You could just as easily say they are giving the Republicans enough rope to hang themselves with — they are going to be stuck with a candidate who is no longer an unknown (there is always a temptation to take what is behind door #3) and who could not win even he had the substantial advantage of being the sitting president. My point is that any comment on the hidden motives for this ruling says more about the commenter than about the ruling.
I doubt they are salivating. Slick Willie was not immune, if I remember correctly.
The decision was unanimous
I rest my case.
A Supreme Court unanimity reflecting the wisdom of Solomon. Freedom to elect. At least we’re free to choose our poison. Surely worse things can happen if Trump were to be elected. Make a woman a deacon and the entire universe will come crashing down in flames on our heads.
Humor aside, the reelection of Biden is up there in calamity ratings. Is Trump the lesser of two evils? Apparently Catholic moral theology allows for such a choice. Great minds Plato and Aristotle assumed evil in that context can be considered a good.
“What would be the object in voting for an imperfect candidate? It would be to limit the evil that a more extreme candidate would do. St Thomas Aquinas enunciated this principle in the Summa Theologiae, where he noted that the object of the will’s choice is the possible good, not the impossible good [ST I-II q13, a5]. Applying this principle, Blessed Pope John Paul II taught in Evangelium Vitae [73] that it is legitimate for a legislator to vote for a more restrictive law regarding abortion” (Colin Donovan Is There a lesser of Two Evils? in NCReg 11.2.2012).
When Trump proposed similar in his prospective platform to win the election, then pass prenatal infant protective bills he was roundly castigated, met with fury by Catholic prolife orgs. Some so convinced, threatened to unseat Catholic pols who followed John Paul’s ruling EV. Does it mean we must compromise our cherished beliefs and accommodate evil? Colin Donovan STL theologian for EWTN argues circumstances [Aquinas postulated a good moral act must be good in its object, intent, and circumstances] may sway the decision on the side of compromise for a presumed good – if it’s made clear that the lesser of two evils candidate/politician nevertheless proposes an evil. The question then becomes, What if this politician is himself choosing the lesser evil? In this writer’s opinion the politician is doing a good, although the voter must make it known that the evil the politician embraces to avoid a greater evil remains an evil. Highly complex. Although resolvable.
More and more, voting is choosing the “lesser of two evils.” Neither candidate is the messiah and to regard either of them as such is foolish. Often, we end up holding our nose and voting for the candidate who will do the least damage.
In a nation of 330 million people, this is the best we can do? It’s difficult not to be cynical.
Maybe a recognition that we are all flawed, and no one who aspires to political power comes to public office without enough private baggage to undo them, if that baggage comes to light. Whether we look in the mirror or we look outward, we lack the capacity to judge whether the faults of one person are more serious or numerous than the faults of another — or our own. The intense scrutiny and perpetual recollection existing today doesn’t create the problem, it just intensifies it, and our awareness of it.
Will. I suffer the same tendency toward cynicism, so I rely on the theological virtue of hope, in which the lesser evil may in time augment into the greater good.
Although, Will, we’re living in an historical moment when the confidence of faith and the theological virtues faith, hope, and charity are diminished. As all seems opaque insofar as mutual sinfulness as addressed by MichaelR, all seems destined for futility, and simple, hopeless awareness.
Yet there is in this historical moment God’s will for each of us, which is not resignation. Rather it is the will to fight and shed our blood, figuratively or actually on the battlefield of salvation. We’re called, we can take that for granted, that Christ is shouting to us within this dark pall that has overshadowed us to take courage, to trust in him. Now perhaps more than ever in the long history of Christianity is our moment of truth. He stands by his standard, the Cross, waiting for us.
Dear Father. Thank you for your enlightening article. I am in political overload, and at a time when my country is at perhaps its darkest moment.
I have heard of voting for the lesser two evils, but that may force me to lose my vote.
Biden’s most egregious achillies heel is his “frivolous” support of abortion. I hope he restricts it to life of the mother. I would ask him to look into the magnificant eyes of his wonderful grandchildren and ask what one would I have aborted!
Trump has a lot of baggage and seems more of a societal threat. His madness for power. NATO threat: He said he ENCOURAGED Putn to do what ever the hell he wants to”. Biden does not! He incites violence, particularly threatening the lives of families of those who disagree, (loyalty). Biden does not. He disparrages his apparent enemies, Biden does not. His autocratic leanings may destroy our “Freedom to elect”. “Apparently Catholic moral theology allows for such a choice”. Trump is blatently immoral. Eas held accountable for the rape of E. Jean Carroll. He cavorted with Stormy Daniels while his wife was pergnant with Barron.
If Trump is elected we may lose our cherished patriotic prayers… My country is of thee sweet land of liberty! God bless America land that I love. Lady Liberty: Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
The dichotomy is blatant. The choice is not.
God save our demooracy
Republic, technically not a true D
Your posts are absolutely insane and disconnectedfrom reality. They are a fitting cautionary tale of what happens when a person abandons truth, forsakes the light, lives in disobedience and sin, and allows hatred and contempt to consume his heart. Don’t worry about the country, we’ll be fine. Worry about the condition of your own soul.
Terence above – Yes, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth in the corrupt media. Should be entertaining.
That’s ironic, if you think about it, since the Jan 6 crowd was not really insurrection, but it WAS wailing and gnashing teeth.
But if you can watch “The View” for more than 5 seconds, even to see them distraught, you have a tougher stomach than I do.
Nothing is worse in a democracy than an electorate that has been disenfranchised by its government through fraudulent elections. Trump is not the issue; the current rogue government in the White House, Justice Dept, CIA, FBI, and other departments of the Executive branch is.
It’s not much better in a hypothetical case in which party bigwigs want every candidate but one to drop out of the primaries, giving voters — you got it! — zero choice.
Likewise, it’s not good when candidates have no real variation in policy regarding issues they truly intend to confront, differing only on emotionally charged issues they rarely mention outside campaign season and about which they intend to do nothing. (I’m thinking Bush v. Clinton in 1992, but it applies to most elections.)
Of, I forgot, add the Dept of Homeland “Security” to the mix. They’re all guilty of planting disinformation in order to bolster Deep State even if it means infringing on the constitutional rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. But that’s clearly not important to Democrats and other Leftists, now is it?
You can thank a Republican president for that department … the first one who clearly stated that, Constitution notwithstanding, HE was declaring a war. Not a “police action”, a war. And now we see, post-Dobbs, the GOP getting cold feet about abortion and embracing IVF.
Put not your trust in princes … nor in Bush nor Obama nor Trump nor Biden.
OUTIS: I don’t trust any of them. But the cancerous rot is endemic in all of government on the Federal level. The names you mention are simply flash points for that widespread rot in D.C.
Oh, that rot clearly extends to states and cities, too. It has ever since a regrettable incident involving an apple.
It is the Constitutional right of the American citizens to elect a President. If we knowingly or unknowingly elect a tyrant, then Congress (who we also have the right to elect) has the power (guaranteed in the Constitution) to take action to attempt to remove the tyrant. A brilliantly well-balanced government! I am thankful that our current Supreme Court justices correctly interpreted our Constitution regarding this ruling. It’s terrifying to think that the Judicial Branch of our government could have twisted the Constitution to make it appear that the Supreme Court has the power to say who can and cannot run for POTUS. We, the people, still have the power to decide–if the people do not like Trump, then they will vote for one of his opponents. The only issue that concerns me right now is the possibility of election fraud by those in charge of counting the votes–easy to do in today’s computer-run world.
actually it’s no longer well balanced because of the power of all the federal agencies. Congress is no longer in control
“It is the Constitutional right of the American citizens to elect a President.(sic)
Not quite. It is the Constitutional right of eligible voters to select electors who then elect a President as the United States is a Constitutional Republic not a democracy. There is no national popular vote for the Presidency.
Since the Supreme Court has ruled that it is up to Congress to disqualify trump on the basis of Insurrection, which there is no doubt he inicited it,
Congress should pass a bill to disqualify him. The Sumpreme Court did not say he didn’t incite the Insurrection they just said it’s up to Congress. trump is still not above the law.
No. Jan 6th was incited by Deep State Washington DC which used the FBI and CIA to set up the situation that resulted in the death of an innocent protester and civil rights violations of other citizens. The people are not as stupid as the government assumes.
Deep state? Nonsense. Jan 6 was not an insurrection, it was a riot, and Trump did encourage it he encouraged a riot,but this does not disqualify him. He should be allowed to run. I will not vote for him.
WILL: If you think that was an insurrection or riot, you’ll have to come up with some new words for what lies ahead. In case you haven’t noticed, democracy in the USA is in freefall. We no longer have a viable constitution.
WOW! Government DEEP STATE?
You must post this false narrative on the your church doors.
Trump at the Ellipse.. “Go down to the Capitol and fight like hell”. Qanon, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, Neo-Nazis, Right Supremists carrying TRUMP and Confederate flags. Carring AR15s, Killing of 5 officers. destroying the Capitol threatening congress. “Where is Nancy”? “Hang Mike Pence”.
You display a critical symptom. Blinded by Trump’s darkness.
The American people are much smarter!!!
MORGAN D: All orchestrated and planned for by those in government agencies I’ve mentioned.
Maybe. But (1) shame on anyone so easily duped, (2) even people who are led down a primrose path are responsible for their actions, and (3) the actions would have been exploited in the same way regardless of how spontaneous they were.
In fact, it amazes me that the rioters did not understand the damage they were doing to their own cause. It amazes me that Trump failed to see the same thing. And it amazes me that a grown man would wear a fake buffalo pelt anywhere other than a costume party with pretty girls.
“on the basis of Insurrection, which there is no doubt he inicited [sic] it”
1)Insurrection, my foot
2)Maybe there’s no doubt in your mind, but that doesn’t make it true
And futhermore after the Senate passes this bill(Insurreciton by trump) it will go before the corrupt House of Republicans to vote on it and we know it won’t pass but it still should be broght before the Senate.
No. It is yet another example of Deep State’s insistence on disenfranchising American citizens.
Mr. Armando,
I’m repeating once again, please excuse but I had family living abroad who experienced a real insurrection. It didn’t look anything like January 6th.January 6th was a riot, not an insurrection & most of those who were involved couldn’t orchestrate a real insurrection if they tried.
So real insurrections don’t prominently feature a dude role-playing a shaman and wearing a fake buffalo hide? Who would have guessed?!
OUTIS: Tell us about the phony bomb planted by the government outide DNC headquarters which was designed to provide incriminating evidence of an “ibsurrection”. No the only threat of a government overthrow has come at the hands of government insiders. Only problem is that the threat is long since passed and the reality is in place.
Sorry, the silly dude is more obvious and indisputable. For the level of federal involvement in making sure this happened, I will never be 100% confident for or against.
Not an inurrection? An In-your-face coup attempt.
Were you watching the massive tradegy unfold on TV. 4 Capitol Police officers lost their lives. Do you acknowledge that Trump’s incited mobs, Qanon, Proud Boys, Oathkeepers, White Supremacists, Noe Nazis forced Congress had to evacuate? The criminal thugs openned the desks of several legislators and destroyed confidential documents? Crazy coward Josh Hawley raised his fist on the Capitol steps showing his support. Then he ran out of the building in fear for his life!!! Hawley’s predicessor, former GOP senator John Danforth anguishes that he supported this creep.
Don’t tell me what I and YOU saw, unless you were watching Days of our Lives.
“So real insurrections don’t prominently feature a dude role-playing a shaman and wearing a fake buffalo hide?”
****
You think?
🙂
Leave it up to Congreess like the Supreme Court says. I believe it was a fair ruling just like i know he inccited it (the insurrection) and Congress or the Senate should do something about it and then let the House deny it like they will do. The Sumpreme Court by law could not judge whether he incited it or not but the American people know; “We are going to take back the White House. Pretty obvious isn’t it as well as obvious the Supreme Court didn’t say he didn’t do it.
The Jan 6th riot started before Trump had finished his speech. Compared to the “mostly peaceful” 2020 “Summer of Love” looting and rioting, Jan. 6th was weak sauce. Evidently destroying lives and livelihoods is OK when it is the common folk who are made to suffer, but when anything close to this happens to the pampered ruling elites it is the end of the world as we know it. As I recall VP Kamala Harris was active in arraigning bail money for the “Summer of Love” rioters. Many progressive DAs let the SOL rioters walk. Too much rules for thee and not for me.
Will, if we expect any public servant running for office to be a messiah we need to reexamine things.
I just go by their records.
I do wish we’d get some younger people running though.
they can make more in other jobs and it s prob safer
mscracker you may be on it with ages. 81 and 77. The more serious issue is deciding the lesser of two evils. Both show signs of mental illness.
Biden’s “woman’s right to choose” an abortion. Trump’s deranged wild unpresidential in-your-face rants trashing any detractors in his path.
I fear for our democracy. The world is looking through or “transparent” front window.
Pray for God’s intercession.
Thank you
I don’t detect any mental illness in either candidate Mr. Morgan. Holding differing views or using caustic language isn’t mental illness.
I do sense a decline in Mr. Biden but I’m not a physician & can’t diagnose him.
Biden is under enormous pressure from all sides. The wars in Ukraine, and the middle east, many domestic issues and a broken political system. One thing he has going for him is his demeanor. Calm, no vitriol, not threatening his detractors or their families.
Trump is an anomaly and a greater danger. He is the “victim” of his own choosing. His continuing viral unhinged unpresidential rhetoric has prompted psychiatrists to conclude he is in mental decline. This weekend he welcomed Hungarian PM Victor Orban to Mar A Lago. He praised the dictator referring to him as a “wise and strong leader. I like strong leaders”.
There are many vibrant and qualified younger non-MAGA members of each party. We would have voted for Nikki Haley until she said she would pardon Trump even if he was convicted of a crime.
Perhaps we should be more concerned with the following VP scenarios… If Biden goes away, Kamala Harris will assume the presidency. Mike Johnson will continue as 2nd in line. If Trump goes his VP choices include Tucker Carlson, Elise Stefanic, Tim Scott will.
“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.”
One would think that neither a State or The Federal Government has the power to enforce Section 3 without recognizing that Section 3 exists in relationship to Section 1 of The Fourteenth Amendment, and thus in order to enforce Section 3, a candidate must be convicted of said crime.
Donald Trump was not convicted in of said crime.
The Fourteenth Amendment is binding in both State and Federal Law.
Woe to us!
True, one would think that using fraudulent charges , false representation of facts, to attempt to remove someone from a State or Federal ballot would be a crime. Who knew it is now no longer a crime , in the arena of politics at least, to intentionally misrepresent facts in order to score a political victory?
Woe to us!
Before the law of the nation, the supreme court justices have turned into the defense attorneys of the insurrectionist Trump.
Wrong. Not when even liberal judges vote the same way as the conservative ones.
You sound hysterical, Rod.
One of the things that cause the “liberals” to froth at the mouth and demand that the Supreme Court be disbanded and destroyed is this; but of course the thing before that was the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Tells you a lot about their integrity and decency.
Rod, if you think that the January 6 incident was an “insurrection,” it only shows to prove that you have never seen a real insurrection.
Funny how it’s an “insurrection” when right-wing protesters go into the Capitol without permission, but not when left-wing protesters do.
Behind every double standard lies an unconfessed single standard.
Reading the opposing comments of those pro or anti Trump here is reflective of the way Catholics followed the national voting divide leading to the 46% Trump got in popular votes in 2020 (against the 51% garnered by Biden that made him the POTUS). What is tragic is that Catholics among this 46% short of canonize Trump as Saint Donald putting him beyond any moral or criminal accountability and reproach for his actions as a liar, narcissist, racist, rapist, loser, and insurrectionist.
Nasty, slanderous remarks if ever there were any.
Some of us happen to believe that we have a corrupt Federal government that has interfered with the constitutional rights guaranteed citizens. Rights such as freedom of speech and assembly, illegal searches of people’s home, detaining citizens without charging them with a crime (issues of habeas corpus), election interference by rigging the voting process, etc., etc. We have more to fear from those working at the FBI, CIA, the Pentagon, Homeland Security, FDA and the Justice Department than we do anything else. Actually, when it comes down to it, we have a government now firmly in place in the USA that is little different than that ruling in Putin’s Russia.
“Nasty, slanderous remarks”. Where do I begin? Deacon Dom has it right. You obfuscate the “in-your-face facts!
You begin with the very things Trump does.
You must be in the 80% of Republicans who will vote for Trump, no matter his immoral, vial and dangerous rhetoric.
God save the union.
narcissist
Pot/Kettle/Black “deacon”.
Well said Deacon. I am a mad-as-hell Navy veteran, a Catholic and a father. When I was at James Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa I was shocked to see horribily disfigured and disabled military heroes being held by hospital orderlies with missing legs and some with facial disfigurement from the fires of war.
I have seen Trump blatantly disgrace our fallen war heroes. At our National Cemetery overlooking the tombstones… they are all “suckers and losers”. John McCain is not a war hero, he is a loser. I don’t like losers”.
His warped mind, his narcissism and EGO ignore that the heroes sacrificed their blood and lives to protect his delicate democracy allowing him to make billions. Where are the Catholic Bishops? They are on their way to Mar-A-Lago to praise him! But, watch out. They may stumble over the boxes of top-secret stolen documents!!!
Catholics for Catholics: The Good News: Join Our National Catholic Prayer FOR TRUMP at Mar-a-Lago.
Now we know that the Bishops are blinded to Trump’s darkness. They consider a Confessional admission to a venial sin more important. “In the eyes of God”!
Trump has never spent one minute in the service of his country. He weaseled out of the draft for the Viet Nam war 5 times feigning “bone spurs”. Where are the Catholic Bishops? Enamored?
He is enamored with dictators. Welcoming this week Hungarian autocrat PM Viktor Orban to Mar-A-Lago. They may stumble over the boxes of top-secret stolen documents. Trump may reveal those sensitive documents. “Russia’s Putin, China’s Xi and NK’s Un are brilliant men. Hitler did some good things. I encourage Russia to do the hell they want with NATO countries”. WOW! Cool Aid anyone?
Impossible to believe, 80% of Republicans will vote for him, even if he is found guilty of a crime! And, his only remaining GOP primary competitor, Nikki Haley boasted she will PARDON him anyway!!!
Today, Trump is facing 91 criminal charges in four judicial districts. He hopes that the court many stays and delays will place him IMMUNE if he is elected.
God help our future generations. Until then, we will hold our children closer with love and prayer. And, we will pray for our Bishops.