The US Supreme Court has approved Donald Trump to appear on the Colorado ballot once again.
The justices unanimously ruled that states cannot use a post-Civil War constitutional provision to prevent presidential candidates from appearing on ballots without prior action from Congress in D.C.
The ruling came in a case concerning Trump's removal from the Colorado primary ballot. It was issued a day before Super Tuesday contests in Colorado and 15 other states, where Trump could gain a significant lead over Nikki Haley in Republican delegates in his bid for the presidential nomination.
Since the Colorado Supreme Court's decision against Trump last December, he has also been excluded from primary ballots in Illinois and Maine. However, all three decisions were pending the outcome of the Supreme Court case.
Trump's case marked the Supreme Court's first involvement with a provision of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted after the Civil War to bar former officeholders who "engaged in insurrection" from holding office again.
In a landmark ruling, Colorado's Supreme Court determined that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment could be applied to Trump, whom the court found had incited the Capitol attack.
The justices wrote, "To allow Colorado to remove a presidential candidate from the ballot under Section 3 would undermine the Framers' vision of 'a Federal Government directly responsible to the people.'"
Shortly after the decision, Trump posted on his social media network: "BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!"
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold expressed disappointment in the court's decision, acknowledging that "Donald Trump is an eligible candidate on Colorado's 2024 Presidential Primary."
