FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally, March 2, 2024, in Greensboro, N.C. The Supreme Court has restored Donald Trump to 2024 presidential primary ballots, rejecting state attempts to hold the Republican former president accountable for the Capitol riot. The justices ruled a day before the Super Tuesday primaries that states cannot invoke a post-Civil War constitutional provision to keep presidential candidates from appearing on ballots. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)

CHARLESTON — The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a Colorado Supreme Court decision that removed former Republican president Donald Trump from its primary ballot over a Civil War-era constitutional provision, upholding Trump’s inclusion on West Virginia’s ballot in a similar case.

In a writ of certiorari released Monday morning, the Supreme Court reversed the Colorado decision that ordered its secretary of state to remove Trump from the ballot, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Section 3 state that “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

Voters in Colorado last September filed a petition with the state supreme court against the Colorado secretary of state and Trump to remove Trump from the ballot due to the amendment. But the U.S. Supreme Court contends that only Congress can enforce Section 3, not the states.

“We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office. But States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency,” according to the unsigned writ.

All nine Supreme Court justices agreed with the writ, though justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote their own joint opinion and Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote her own separate opinion.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey was part of an amicus brief along with Indiana opposing Trump’s removal from the Colorado ballot.

“This ruling is truly the right decision,” Morrisey said in a statement Monday morning. “Lawsuits like this one undermine citizens’ right to choose who they want to represent them in every level of government and impede a fair and free election process. Had the Supreme Court ruled differently, chaos would have dominated the upcoming presidential election. I’m happy they agreed with us that that outcome was unacceptable.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling will affect similar lawsuits in multiple states seeking to block Trump from the ballot, including a lawsuit filed last year in federal court in West Virginia.

Texas resident and write-in presidential candidate John Anthony Castro filed a notice of appeal at the end of 2023 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit after U.S. District Judge Irene C. Berger dismissed his September lawsuit to block Trump’s placement on West Virginia’s primary and general election ballots. Berger granted motions in December by attorneys for Trump, Secretary of State Mac Warner and the West Virginia Republican Party to dismiss the lawsuit.