Supreme Court Likely to Rule on Trump Ballot Eligibility Monday

(Bloomberg) -- The US Supreme Court hinted it might rule Monday on efforts to bar Donald Trump from the presidential election ballot in Colorado, adding a new opinion day to its calendar just as voters prepare to head to the polls in that state.

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The court never says in advance which opinions it will issue on particular days. But it has handled the Colorado ballot case on an expedited basis, and a ruling Monday would provide clarity about Trump’s eligibility before Colorado’s Super Tuesday Republican primary.

The announcement of a new opinion day over a weekend is unusual, all the more so because the justices aren’t taking the bench Monday, as they normally do for rulings. The court revealed the new opinion day on its website. Opinion release will start at 10 a.m. in Washington.

QuickTake: About the Efforts to Keep Trump Off State Ballots

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump was ineligible to appear on the ballot because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The ruling was the first to bar Trump from the ballot under the insurrection clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

The Colorado court put its ruling on hold — meaning Trump could appear on primary ballots — while the US Supreme Court considers the issue. A state official in Maine and a judge in Illinois have also declared him ineligible, though those decisions are also on hold.

Arguments in February suggested the court would let Trump appear on the ballot, probably in a broad enough way to doom similar efforts elsewhere, including in Maine and Illinois. The court could also issue a Colorado-specific ruling that focuses on that state’s procedures, or the justices could rule against Trump and fuel ballot challenges around the country.

The Colorado ballot case is one of more than 30 that have been argued but not yet decided in the Supreme Court’s current term. It’s one of a small number of expedited cases, along with a challenge to the $6 billion Purdue Pharma LP opioid settlement and the shield it provides the Sackler family members who own the company.

(Updates with time of opinion release in third paragraph and analysis in fifth and sixth paragraphs.)

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