The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously concluded that Colorado can¡¯t keep Donald Trump off the ballot.
Section 3 of the 14th amendment, which says that a former officeholder who becomes an insurrectionist can¡¯t hold federal office, won¡¯t save us from a potential second Trump presidency. The court correctly rejected what I would call the National Treasure theory of the U.S. Constitution, according to which an obscure, almost discarded provision could have determined the outcome of a presidential election. Now it¡¯s up to we the people to save our democracy.
The court¡¯s opinion was an unsigned per curiam, which means no single justice has authorship. In one of its two parts, the court held that a state ¡ª in this case Colorado ¡ª doesn¡¯t have the authority under section 3 of the federal Constitution to decide whether a candidate for office is disqualified for insurrection or rebellion. In the other part of the opinion, the court held that, for Section 3 to go into effect, Congress would have to pass a law specifying the procedures that would be required to determine whether a candidate was in fact disqualified.
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