Trump applauds Supreme Court ruling, looks ahead to immunity arguments

On the eve of Super Tuesday, Donald Trump emerged triumphant in a speech addressing the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling Monday that states can’t remove the former president from the 2024 presidential ballot.

Trump used the decision to again claim his innocence in the numerous indictments and civil actions against him, and to cast his legal woes as persecution from political rivals.

“I think it will go a long way toward bringing our country together, which our country needs,” Trump said in remarks at his Mar-A-Lago estate. "And [the justices] worked long. They worked hard. And frankly, they worked very quickly on something that will be spoken about 100 years from now and 200 years from now, extremely important.”

The high court ruled in a unanimous, unsigned opinion that only Congress, not the states, can disqualify a presidential candidate under the Constitution’s “insurrection clause.” The justices’ decision overturns a Colorado ruling that would have removed Trump from the ballot there.

The ruling from the Supreme Court marks a win for Trump as Americans in 15 states will cast votes on Tuesday, removing uncertainty on whether Trump's name should be included on the ballots.

"I was very honored by a nine-to-nothing vote," Trump said on the Howie Carr Show following the ruling. "And this is for future presidents. This is not for me. This is for future presidents, all presidents. But this was a very big decision. It was a great decision."

Trump, at Mar-A-Lago, used the Supreme Court's decision to look toward a case on whether the former president is immune from prosecution. Last week, the high court announced that it would review Trump's claim that he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while in office. The justices will hear arguments on the case during the week of April 22 and proceedings in the trial court remain frozen.

"Another thing that will be coming up very soon will be immunity for a president and not immunity for me, but for any president," Trump said Monday. "If a president doesn't have full immunity, you really don't have a president because nobody that is serving in that office will have the courage to make, in many cases, what would be the right decision or it could be the wrong decision."

Monday's ruling is just the first of several major legal battles that will shape the course of the 2024 election. Trump first entered uncharted territory when he became the first former president to faceany kind of criminal charges after being indicted by a New York grand jury last March over his alleged role in a scheme to pay hush money to a porn star during the 2016 presidential campaign. Since then, Trump has been indicted three more times — two times at the federal level. Trump has denied wrongdoing in all four cases.