U.S. Supreme Court rules Congress has the power to bar Trump from being on the ballot or create a process to do so, not state officials
Former President Donald Trump achieved a decisive victory at the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week, as the Court unanimously ruled that states lack the authority to disqualify him, or any other federal candidates, from running for office based on a seldom-invoked constitutional provision in the 14th Amendment that forbids individuals who have “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office.
The ruling terminates an effort in multiple states to end the candidacy of Trump by invoking the provision in the 14th Amendment, which was crafted to prohibit former Confederates from holding public office following the Civil War.
The main reason the Court decided that states cannot enforce the 14th Amendment in this context is because allowing so would be chaotic.
The Court asserted that in order to enforce the 14th Amendment against a federal candidate, Congress must establish a comprehensive procedure.
This decision has greatly heightened the standards for disqualifying Trump or any other individual, especially in light of the current state of gridlock within Congress.
Although I wish the Court had attempted to make a ruling with regard to the 14th Amendment and whether Trump violated it, it seems logical that Congress should set the standers for federal candidates.
Former Secretary of Labor and UC Berkeley Prof. Robert Reich has been outspoken about the fact that the 14th Amendment bars Trump from running for any office, ever again.
He recently posted a Substack article in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling.
He writes:
“[The Court] agreed that allowing states to make such decisions would lead to a patchwork of ballots, undercutting federal authority. But this may not be the most troubling aspect of their decision over the long term. The five justices in the majority went further, ruling that Section 3 could only be enforced by Congress. They rested their argument on Section 5 of the 14th Amendment, which provides that Congress shall pass ‘appropriate legislation’ to enforce the Amendment — such as, for example, procedures to identify which individuals should be disqualified under Section 3. And Congress has not done so. But requiring that Congress first pass such legislation would prevent the federal government’s own Justice Department from bringing a suit alleging that someone should not be allowed on a ballot because they participated in an insurrection. It would in effect shield any future insurrectionist candidate whose party controls at least one chamber of Congress and therefore would not enact such legislation. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson were also rightfully concerned that the majority’s decision could be used to prevent the Justice Department or any aggrieved plaintiff from enforcing other provisions of the 14th Amendment..."
In sum, the Court’s ruling has made it easier for insurrectionists to run for office.
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