Donald Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic president Joe Biden in November’s US election.
The US Supreme Court has given a boost to Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign after ruling that states cannot kick him off the ballot for his actions over the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
America’s highest court reversed a decision of the Colorado Supreme Court, which had determined Trump could not serve again as president under a rarely-used constitutional provision.
The US Supreme Court has now ruled unanimously that states cannot keep presidential candidates from appearing on ballots without action from Congress first.
The latest ruling applies to all states, not just Colorado, and it means efforts to remove him from ballots in places such as Maine and Illinois – which had been on hold pending today’s decision – will also come to an end.
Speaking after the decision was announced, the former president said: “Essentially, you cannot take somebody out of the race because an opponent would like to have it that way.
“It has nothing to do with the fact that it’s the leading candidate, whether it was the leading candidate or a candidate that was well down on the totem pole.”
Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic president Joe Biden in November’s US election.
Section 3 of the constitution’s 14th amendment prohibits those who previously held government positions but later “engaged in insurrection” from running for various offices.
The court in Washington DC ruled the Colorado Supreme Court had wrongly assumed states can determine if a presidential candidate or other candidate for federal office is ineligible.
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The latest ruling makes it clear that Congress, rather than states, has to set rules on how the 14th amendment provision can be enforced.
Trump also called for presidents to have immunity from prosecution, saying: “If a president doesn’t have full immunity, you really don’t have a president because nobody that is serving in that office will have the courage to make, in many cases, what would be the right decision, or it could be the wrong decision.”
His only remaining rival for his party’s nomination is former South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley.
The former president’s eligibility had been challenged in court by a group of six voters in Colorado – four Republicans and two independents – who portrayed him as a threat to American democracy and sought to hold him accountable for the 6 January riots in 2021.
This is a sweeping victory for Donald Trump, but it isn’t a great surprise.
It was all about whether Donald Trump was disqualified from running again for president because of his involvement in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The Supreme Court in Colorado (each state has its own top court) had concluded he was involved in an insurrection and that this fact disqualified him from running for president under a clause in the US constitution’s 14th amendment.
Two other states, Maine and Illinois, made similar decisions.
But now the US Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, ruled that individual states do not have the authority to determine whether a presidential candidate is ineligible under a provision of the constitution’s 14th amendment.
The justices’ ruling makes it clear the US Congress, not individual states, set rules on how the 14th amendment provision can be enforced.
“Because the constitution makes Congress, rather than the states, responsible for enforcing section 3 against all federal officeholders and candidates, we reverse,” the ruling said.
This means the decision applies to all states, not just Colorado.
The top court is often accused of being politically driven because the justices are appointed by the president.
