PRESS RELEASE
March 5, 2024
Contact: James Bopp, Jr.
Cell Phone 812/243-0825; Phone 812/232-2434; Fax 812/235-3685; [email protected]

Unanimous US Supreme Court Rules President Trump Cannot be Disqualified from the 2024 Ballot

Terre Haute, Indiana - On Monday, The Supreme Court of the United States unanimously held that states cannot remove President Donald Trump from the presidential ballot. The James Madison Center for Free Speech had submitted an amicus brief to the Court in support of President Trump in this case.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that President Trump was disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because he “engaged in insurrection” regarding the January 6th attack on the US Capitol Yesterday, all nine Justices recognized that Colorado had no authority to remove President Trump from the ballot because the Constitution only gives Congress the authority to enforce its provisions as it relates to federal officeholders or candidates.

The Court found that because the states have varying rules and procedures, a single candidate for federal office could be “declared ineligible in some States, but not others, based on the same conduct.” The problems this type of “patchwork” would create is especially evident in a presidential election. The Court recognized that votes “not allowed to be cast” for a presidential candidate in one state would impact not just that state, but would impact states, and voters, across the country. If individual states had this kind of power to disrupt a presidential election process, it could “nullify the votes of millions and change the election result.”

“This ruling prevents the outlandish government overreach that several states have attempted to use to remove President Trump from the primary ballot,” stated James Bopp, Jr., lead counsel for the James Madison Center for Free Speech. “But importantly, this ruling also offers protection from bureaucratic and judicial overreach against other federal officeholders. In 2022, liberal groups tried to use Section Three to remove several candidates for congressional office from the ballot. This decision will prevent these groups from trying to do the same in the future. American democracy depends on the ability of the people to pick its leadership, not bureaucrats or judges. We applaud the Court's decision today because it protects our precious democracy.”

Read Amicus Brief here