Supreme Court’s Colorado decision bolsters Perry in PA-10

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 9-0 ruling in the Colorado ballot case ranges far beyond the State House in Denver.

How far? Well, it reaches across time zones from Illinois to Maine, as well as the Keystone State, as the ruling that individual states can’t disqualify former President Donald Trump from the ballot also extends to other federal offices.

And that should clear Rep. Scott Perry (R-10) from any litigation attempting to remove him from ballots in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District.

“There’s no basis on which that suit can survive in light of this opinion,” Joshua Voss, Perry’s lead lawyer in the case, said after the Supreme Court ruling. “This should be the final word.”

The Supreme Court unanimously shot down attempts by Secretaries of State in Colorado, Maine and Illinois, to remove Trump from their state ballots, relying on an interpretation of the “insurrection clause” of the 14th Amendment that says people who engaged in insurrection after taking an oath to support the Constitution are barred from future office.

“We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office,” the court’s unsigned majority opinion reads. “But States have no power under the Constitution to enforce [the insurrection clause] with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency.”

Only Congress has that power, according to the Court, so any challenge to Perry most likely will be tossed out.

In January, Democratic activist Gene Stilp sued Perry and Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt in state court, saying Perry is ineligible for office and should be removed from the ballot. Schmidt, a Republican working in the administration of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, had opposed the suit, saying he did not have the power to remove Perry.

Stilp’s lawsuit asks that Commonwealth Court declare that the “U.S. Constitution, Amendment 14, Section 3, can be utilized in Pennsylvania to determine who can and cannot be on the primary ballot,” as well as declare that Perry “engaged in insurrectionist activity, thus eliminating (him) from the ballot for representative to Congress.

Steve Ulrich is the managing editor of PoliticsPA.

This article was originally published in PoliticsPA.

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