By: Anna Pham, Carlos Ruiz, Melina Saad, Raya Torres
March 6, 2024
The United States Supreme Court came to the unanimous decision Monday, for former president Donald Trump to appear on the 2024 Presidential ballot in the state of Colorado. Trump immediately took to his social media Truth Social to celebrate the Supreme Court ruling saying “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!”, this decision concludes months of debates on whether the former president violated the 14th amendment. This decision rules that individual states cannot remove Trump from ballots for insurrection. Colorado was the first state to prevent the former president from appearing on the ballot. Soon after, Maine and Illinois followed the same path. However, this has now been put on hold because of SCOTUS’ recent decision.
This began on Dec. 19, 2023 when the Colorado Supreme Court based the ruling to prevent Trump from appearing on the ballot around the insurrection clause in Section 3 of the 14th amendment. Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson shared the opinion that the court did more than necessary when it came to breaking down how Section 3 should be enforced by Congress. While Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett agreed with her fellow justices, she said, “All nine justices agree on the outcome of this case. That is the message Americans should take home.”
After Biden won the 2020 presidential race, Trump gave a speech on Jan. 6, 2021 in an attempt to overturn the presidential election. GOP supporters infamously raided the U.S. Capitol hoping to keep the former president in power. On Aug. 1, 2023, Trump was indicted for three different criminal conspiracies in connection to the speech that led to the raid of the U.S. Capitol. He was also impeached for the second time, but did not get convicted in Congress. Trump’s latest Supreme Court hearing of claiming presidential immunity in the federal election interference case has been postponed to April 25.
With Trump’s recent wins in the Super Tuesday primaries in 16 states, Trump sits as the frontrunning candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Despite losing the Republican primaries in D.C. and Vermont to candidate Nikki Haley, Haley dropped out of the presidential race early Wednesday morning. “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him and I hope he does that,” said Haley during a speech in South Carolina. Haley has not endorsed either Trump or President Joe Biden, but both presidential candidates have reached out to the Haley supporters.
President Biden mentioned Haley supporters in a statement, “I want to be clear, There is a place for them in my campaign.” In another social media post Trump said that he “would further like to invite all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our nation.” Both Biden and Trump won a majority of the state primaries, propelling themselves toward the possibility of a rematch of the 2020 presidential election. Trump posted, “It is important, for the Good of our Country, that Joe Biden and I Debate Issues that are so vital to America, and the American People.” Although Trump is attempting a third presidential bid, he still is the first former U.S. president to face four criminal charges and will have trials later this year.
