While the Supreme Court unanimously agreed to overturn the Colorado ruling, a narrower 5-4 majority ruled that states don’t have the power to enforce the 14th Amendment’s insurrectionist ban against any federal candidates.
A five-justice majority – Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – wrote that states may not remove any federal officer from the ballot, especially the president, without Congress first passing legislation.
“We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office. But States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency,” they said. “Nothing in the Constitution delegates to the States any power to enforce Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates.”
But four justices said that swept too far and settled too much. With its opinion, the majority, “shuts the door on other potential means of federal enforcement,” Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote. “We cannot join an opinion that decides momentous and difficult issues unnecessarily.”
Amy Coney Barrett, writing alone, said that the case “does not require us to address the complicated question whether federal legislation is the exclusive vehicle through which Section 3 can be enforced.”
