Trump v. Anderson
United States Supreme Court case / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Trump v. Anderson, No. 23-719, 601 U.S. 100 (2024), is a U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously held that states could not determine eligibility for federal office, including the presidency, under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. In December 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court rejected former president Donald Trump's presidential eligibility on the basis of his actions during the January 6 Capitol attack, adhering to the Fourteenth Amendment disqualification theory. The case was known as Anderson v. Griswold in the Colorado state courts.
Trump v. Anderson | |
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Argued February 8, 2024 Decided March 4, 2024 | |
Full case name | Donald J. Trump v. Norma Anderson, Michelle Priola, Claudine Cmarada, Krista Kafer, Kathi Wright, and Christopher Castilian |
Docket no. | 23-719 |
Citations | 601 U.S. 100 (more) |
Argument | Oral argument |
Decision | Opinion |
Case history | |
Prior | Certiorari to the Colorado Supreme Court, Anderson v. Griswold |
Holding | |
Only Congress, not the states, can determine eligibility for federal office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Colorado Supreme Court reversed. | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Per curiam | |
Concurrence | Barrett (in part and in judgment) |
Concurrence | Sotomayor, Kagan, Jackson (in judgment) |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 3 |
The Colorado Supreme Court held that Trump's actions before and during the attack constituted engaging in insurrection; their assertion is that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment disqualifies presidential candidates who have engaged in insurrection against the United States. The Colorado Supreme Court's ruling in Anderson v. Griswold was the first time that a presidential candidate was disqualified from office in a state on the basis of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court stayed its decision until a ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court.
On January 5, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Trump's petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of the Colorado Supreme Court ruling in Anderson v. Griswold on an accelerated pace; oral arguments were held on February 8, 2024. On March 4, 2024, the Supreme Court issued a per curiam ruling reversing the Colorado Supreme Court decision. All nine justices held that an individual state cannot determine eligibility under Section 3 for federal office holders, and that such power is conferred exclusively to the federal government. A majority of the court also ruled that only Congress can enforce Section 3: the courts (federal or otherwise) cannot therefore declare a candidate ineligible for office under the said Section 3 unless an Act of Congress explicitly grants them that power; four justices disagreed with the latter decision and expressed concern in concurrences that this ruling went farther than needed at the time.