CHARLESTON – West Virginia officials are praising the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to allow former President Donald Trump to remain on the primary election ballot in Colorado.
In a unanimous ruling March 4, the Supreme Court reversed a decision by Colorado’s state Supreme Court. Two other states – Maine and Illinois – have made similar decisions, but those had been put on hold. Today’s ruling stops those attempts as well because it means individual states do not have the authority to deny a candidate for federal office from the ballot.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey co-led an amicus brief with Indiana urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Colorado decision, arguing that Congress must decide whether to disqualify a candidate under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which had been used in the case to claim Trump was an insurrectionist because of his actions on January 6, 2021.
Warner
| File photo
“This ruling is truly the right decision,” Morrisey said. “Lawsuits like this one undermine citizens’ right to choose who they want to represent them in every level of government and impede a fair and free election process.
“Had the Supreme Court ruled differently, chaos would have dominated the upcoming presidential election. I’m happy they agreed with us that that outcome was unacceptable.”
West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner filed an amicus brief with several other secretaries of state arguing that they, as the chief election officers of their states, should not be found to possess judicial authority to interpret and apply federal law in the context of candidate eligibility for federal office.
“It should be the voters, not a secretary of state or state court, to decide who can seek federal office, especially the presidency of the United States,” Warner said. “The Colorado Supreme Court got it wrong, and SCOTUS made it clear to all other states attempting similar inappropriate actions that neither secretaries of state nor state courts have authority to remove federal candidates from a ballot.
“President Trump's name will appear on the ballot in West Virginia. The Supreme Court's unanimous decision upheld the voters’ right to choose their presidential nominee in an election.
“This ruling should settle this matter nationally once and for all. I look forward to administering the election rather than being distracted by these unlawful and unconstitutional acts by other states and executive branch officials.”
