SCOTUS Rules on Colorado Ballot Case

The Supreme Court handed down a ruling in the Trump v Anderson, the Colorado ballot access case. In an unsigned opinion, the Court reversed the Colorado supreme court’s ruling that Trump be barred from Colorado ballots on the grounds he was an insurrectionist and therefore ineligible.

I’m not going to get into parsing the entire decision, I’ll leave that to others who are more well versed in the law. What I will say is this ruling was a resounding slap across the face of the CO supreme court. The opinion made it very clear that the States do not have the authority to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment for federal elections.

I will note that you may see some differing analysis on the order, with some saying that the order does and does not do certain things. The single question before the Court was a relatively simple one:

“Did the Colorado Supreme Court err in ordering President Trump excluded from the 2024 presidential primary ballot?

Page 3, Per Curiam Order in the matter of Trump v Anderson

The Court ruled on this question and this question alone. It did not rule on whether or not Trump was guilty of insurrection. That question was not before the Court.

Keep in mind, concurrences and dissents do not count as a matter of law. You are likely to see lots of commentary about the concurrences written by Sotomayor and Barrett. While an interesting footnote to history, they are a waste of paper. The 13 page Per Curiam order is the only one that matters.