Looking into the SCOTUS ruling on Trump’s election eligibility

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that President Donald J. Trump can stay on Colorado’s primary ballot. The decision was unanimous and secures former Trump’s eligibility in the 2024 election.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Former President Trump scored a legal victory today. The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the likely Republican nominee for president should be restored to the ballot in Colorado, and the decision says individual states cannot bar candidates for federal office under the insurrection clause. So this is a legal victory, also a political victory for Trump. And who better to walk through the state of Trump’s legal and political challenges than NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro? Hey there, Domenico.

DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey – good to be with you, Mary Louise.

KELLY: OK, start with the politics. How big a victory is this for Trump that states cannot disqualify him on 14th Amendment grounds?

MONTANARO: Well, I mean, bottom line is it means he’s going to be on the ballot, you know, first for Super Tuesday tomorrow, which might be the biggest implication because he can acquire delegates from those states. In the general election, it’s a little bit less so, you know, just from a numbers standpoint because the places where they were considering kicking him off were mostly blue states. Colorado, you know, used to be a swing state but has trended much more left in the past two decades. At most, it likely could mean missing out on one delegate in a congressional district in Maine, someplace he won in 2016. And, of course, every electoral vote matters when elections are this close. But more broadly, this is a big win for Trump because it’s further proof that any remedy for those who want to keep Trump out of the white House is clear that it’s not going to go through the courts, but it’s going to have to rest in the hands of voters.

KELLY: OK, well, I want to step back and just tick…