Supreme Court decision on Trump’s 14th Amendment case could come Monday

The Supreme Court in an unusual announcement signaled it will release at least one opinion on Monday morning, a signal the justices could hand down a decision on former President Trump’s 14th Amendment case that kicked him off the Colorado ballot.

The high court does not announce in advance which decisions it will release on a given day, and the justices in theory could hand down opinions in any of the few dozen pending cases on their docket.

But Sunday’s update was atypical in several respects — including that it came during the weekend — fueling growing speculation that a resolution to Trump’s historic ballot ban case is imminent.

The court provided less than 24 hours notice of Monday’s opinion release, compared with the heads-up usually announced multiple days in advance.

Monday is also the day before Super Tuesday, when primary voters in Colorado and more than a dozen other states will cast their ballots, with hundreds of delegates at stake as Trump moves closer to locking up the Republican nomination.

The justices since returning to in-person operations after the pandemic also generally take the bench to read aloud summaries of the majority opinions to the live audience in the courtroom. 

But the update posted to the court’s website said the court “will not take the Bench” on Monday for the expected opinion announcement, which comes at the end of the justices’ latest session.

Last month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Trump’s appeal of a decision disqualifying him from Colorado’s primary ballot under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection ban. The justices appeared reluctant to take the extraordinary step of removing Trump from the ballot.

The case is one of dozens proceeding across the country seeking to prevent Trump from a second White House term over his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The justices tend to announce the biggest opinions of each term in May and June, but Trump’s case is being heard on an expedited basis. Oral arguments were heard on Feb. 8, just weeks after the high court agreed to hear the case.

Any opinions on Monday will be handed down beginning at 10 a.m. ET.