Supreme Court invalidates Colorado exclusion of Trump from ballot | Eastern North Carolina Now

The Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump cannot be removed from the ballot by individual states, overturning the Colorado Supreme Court decision that found him ineligible as a candidate and disqualified from the state ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

“[R]esponsibility for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with Congress and not the States. The judgment of the Colorado Supreme Court therefore cannot stand,” the per curiam order reads. “All nine Members of the Court agree with that result.”
The order was issued on March 4, just a day before more than a dozen states hold their primary elections. 
President Trump reacted in a brief social media post: “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!”Supreme Court Defers to Congress
The Supreme Court ruled that states cannot enforce Section 3 for national candidates, but “the Constitution empowers Congress to prescribe how those determinations to be made.”
Section 5 of the 14th Amendment spells out Congress’s authority to pass legislation to enforce the amendment, and the court opined that this “power is critical when it comes to Section 3.”

States may only enforce Section 3 when it comes to state office, the opinion reads, in line with how states have historically used the statute.   
The court noted a distinct lack of historical precedent where states used the statute to disqualify national candidates.

“As an initial matter, not even the respondents contend that the Constitution authorizes States to somehow remove sitting federal officeholders who may be violating Section 3,” the opinion reads, adding that this sort of power would “flout” Constitutional principles.

The justices found that the text of Section 3 itself reinforces this reading, as it allows Congress to “remove” a Section 3 “disability” through a two-thirds vote.