Five Takeaways From Trump’s Supreme Court Win in Ballot Case

Ruling effectively ends efforts to disqualify Trump from race
Split on enforcement highlights political divide on high court

Members of the media outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC on March 4. — Members of the media outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC on March 4.
Photographer: Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg

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By Erik Larson

March 4, 2024 at 6:27 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Former President Donald Trump scored a crucial legal victory after the US Supreme Court overturned a decision by Colorado’s highest court that had removed him from 2024 ballots over his actions inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The unsigned unanimous ruling effectively ends efforts to have Trump disqualified from running for president again under Section 3 of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment. That post-Civil War provision explicitly bars from federal office those who have engaged in insurrection in violation of a previous oath to uphold the nation’s highest law.