Supreme Court ruling and Super Tuesday define US election

This Tuesday (5) is one of the most important dates in the United States electoral calendar. Millions of Americans go to the polls on Super Tuesday, as the day is known when 15 states vote simultaneously for candidates for the country’s President.

Super Tuesday occurs after the American Supreme Court authorized former President Donald Trump to participate in the primaries in states whose courts barred the Republican for insurrection, due to his participation in instigating the invasion of the Capitol, on January 6, 2021.

The primaries will be held in the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.

The expectation is that the businessman will take a good part of the 865 delegates at stake, leaving him very close to the 1,215 needed to secure his nomination, which should be made official at the party’s national convention, from July 15th to 18th.

If the electorate confirms Trump’s favoritism this Tuesday, Nikki Haley, his only remaining competitor in the Republican race, has already indicated that she should announce her withdrawal.

The far-right leader has 244 delegates, obtained with victories in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, the Virgin Islands, Wyoming, Idaho, Michigan and Missouri, while Haley has only 43 – of these, 19 were obtained in her only victory so far, in Washington (District of Columbia), last Sunday.

Trump’s victories at the polls are accompanied by favorable decisions in court. This Monday, the Supreme Court annulled the elimination of the businessman’s name from the Colorado primaries, applying the same judgment to Maine and Illinois, which had adopted similar action.

In December, the Colorado Supreme Court had upheld the argument that the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution disqualified Trump for insurrection due to his role in instigating the invasion of the Capitol. The act is considered the biggest attack on US democracy in recent history.

The insurrection charge was considered the main loophole for Trump to be prevented from running again.

The Supreme Court judges, however, did not take as much effort to decide whether the former president committed insurrection or not. Instead, the focus was on a state’s ability to disqualify a candidate in a national election. According to the judges, only Congress can apply section 3 against candidates for federal positions.

“We conclude that states can disqualify people who hold or attempt to hold state office. But the states do not have the power, under the Constitution, to apply section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency,” said the opinion released by the court.