Subject: Re: Another Win For President Trump
But then, how do we enforce the 14th? Normally you sue, and the courts enforce the Constitution (e.g. a free speech suit). Well, this was adjudicated in a state court...for some reason they skipped the federal courts and went straight to SCOTUS, as I recall. Maybe if it was appealed to federal court, and upheld, the SCOTUS ruling (it would have eventually ended up there) would have been different?

The majority held that this particular provision is a grant of power to Congress, and Congressional action is required for enforcement. So it wouldn't have mattered if the case had come up through the federal courts. The concurrences said they would have stopped at "states can't enforce this," and wouldn't have reached the question of which federal procedures can be used to enforce 14A S3. So we don't know whether they would have accepted federal judicial enforcement or not.