The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled on Monday that Donald Trump cannot be excluded from the 2024 presidential ballot in Colorado. In other words, they resolved that states do not have the power to unilaterally disqualify federal candidates. The ruling overturned lower rulings from states including Colorado and Illinois, which argued that the Republican should be disqualified based on the 14th Amendment. Among the dozens of political responses that the decision generated, the one from Joe Biden's re-election campaign did not go unnoticed.
"States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency," the court's justices wrote in a unanimous decision, signed by the six conservatives and three liberals.
"The Court has settled a politically charged issue in the volatile season of a Presidential election. Particularly in this circumstance, writings on the Court should turn the national temperature down, not up. For present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity: All nine Justices agree on the outcome of this case. That is the message Americans should take home," said Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed to the country's highest court in October 2020.
JUST IN — SCOTUS RULES 9-0 in favor of Donald Trump, reversing Colorado decision to remove Trump from the ballot. pic.twitter.com/u18SUTdxd0
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 4, 2024
In turn, five of the six conservative justices indicated that the only way to allow disqualification by states would be with legislation approved by Congress.
'We don't really care'
Quentin Fulks, senior deputy director of Biden's re-election campaign, assured that the ruling does not change his main strategy: defeating Trump at the polls.
"We don't really care," he noted in an interview with Jen Psaki for MSNBC Live. "It has not been the way we have been planning to defeat Donald Trump," he added.
"Our focus since day one of launching this campaign has been to defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box. And everything we’ve done since the president announced back in April that he’s running for re-election is to build an infrastructure and apparatus to do so," he added.
Ty Cobb's premonition
Back in December 2023, the former White House lawyer during the Trump administration anticipated that, if it took on the electoral case, the Supreme Court would rule 9-0 in favor of the Republican, which ultimately ended up happening.
“I think this case will be handled quickly. I think it could be 9-0 in the Supreme Court for Trump. It will be a race to get there. I mean, the Supreme Court, though, will not hesitate to move quickly on this. They know what is at stake,” he said during an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett .
Ty Cobb predicts the Supreme Court will overturn the Colorado ruling 9-0. pic.twitter.com/iavIFxccEL
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) December 20, 2023
