Trump v. Anderson (2024)

Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, bars from federal and state office anyone who took an oath to support the Constitution as an officer and then engaged in insurrection or rebellion, unless Congress removes the disability by a two-thirds vote. Adopted to exclude former Confederate officials, it had rarely been used since Reconstruction. In 2023 voters in Colorado sued to keep Donald Trump off the 2024 Republican primary ballot, arguing that his conduct surrounding the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol disqualified him.

On December 19, 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled 4 to 3 that Trump was disqualified, and Maine's secretary of state reached a similar decision. On March 4, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed. The Court held that states may disqualify people from state office but have no power to enforce Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates, especially for the presidency, because a patchwork of state decisions would be chaotic. Five justices went further, stating that enforcement against federal candidates requires legislation by Congress under Section 5 of the amendment.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson concurred only in the judgment, writing that the majority unnecessarily decided how Section 3 must be enforced and shielded insurrectionists from future challenges, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote separately urging a focus on agreement. The Court did not decide whether Trump had engaged in insurrection. Supporters said the ruling left the choice to voters and avoided a chaotic patchwork, while critics said it made Section 3 nearly unenforceable against federal candidates absent new legislation.