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6 

TRUMP v. ANDERSON 

Per Curiam 

conferred by §5 of the [Fourteenth] Amendment.”  General 
Building Contractors Assn., Inc. v. Pennsylvania, 458 U. S. 
375, 385 (1982); see 16 Stat. 143–144. 

B 
This case raises the question whether the States, in addi-
tion to Congress, may also enforce Section 3.  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 of-
fices, especially the Presidency. 

“In  our  federal  system,  the  National  Government  pos-
sesses only limited powers; the States and the people retain 
the remainder.”  Bond v. United States, 572 U. S. 844, 854 
(2014).  Among  those  retained  powers  is  the  power  of  a 
State to “order the processes of its own governance.”  Alden 
v.  Maine,  527  U. S.  706,  752  (1999).    In  particular,  the
States  enjoy  sovereign  “power  to  prescribe  the  qualifica-
tions of their own officers” and “the manner of their election 
. . . free from external interference, except so far as plainly
provided by the Constitution of the United States.”  Taylor 
v. Beckham, 178 U. S. 548, 570–571 (1900).  Although the
Fourteenth Amendment restricts state power, nothing in it 
plainly withdraws from the States this traditional author-
ity.  And after ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, 
States used this authority to disqualify state officers in ac-
cordance with state statutes.  See, e.g., Worthy v. Barrett, 
63 N. C. 199, 200, 204 (1869) (elected county sheriff ); State 
ex rel. Sandlin v. Watkins, 21 La. Ann. 631, 631–633 (1869)
(state judge). 

Such power over governance, however, does not extend to 
federal officeholders and candidates.  Because federal offic-
ers “ ‘owe their existence and functions to the united voice 
of the whole, not of a portion, of the people,’ ” powers over
their election and qualifications must be specifically “dele-
gated to, rather than reserved by, the States.”  U. S. Term