The headlines out of the Supreme Court last week were generally in agreement: all of the justices seemed unwilling to allow states – in this case, Colorado – to use Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to keep Donald Trump off the ballot.
If the court actually rules this way, it's the equivalent of saying there's no bag of magic constitutional beans that can block Trump's candidacy or ability to hold office.
The only way to do that is the same method Joe Biden used to thump Trump in 2020: beat him at the ballot box.
According to the Washington Post:
Liberal and conservative justices alike warned that if Colorado had its way in declaring Trump ineligible, a single state could decide for the rest of the nation whether a presidential candidate is permitted to run.
Which is precisely the problem with the Section 3 scheme that Trump opponents seem to have left out, ignored, or hoped wouldn't matter: left to their own devices, partisan majorities, and partisan prejudices, states could find clever new way of declaring the other side's candidates ineligible.
Didn't close the nation's southern border? That's a “DQ” for you, Joe Biden. Didn't declare a climate emergency and government control over the means of production? No public office or ballot position for you, Candidate X. And so on.
That doesn't mean Trump gets off without a few more dings in his already battered reputation. Even his own lawyer had to say that what happened on Jan. 6 was very bad, and highly illegal. Just not specifically bad or illegal enough to cross a constitutional barrier:
During the arguments, Mitchell, Trump's attorney, said that what happened on Jan. 6 was a “riot.” But, he said, it was “not an insurrection.”
“The events were shameful, criminal, violent, all of those things, but did not qualify as an insurrection,” Mitchell said.
So much for that “hostage” lunacy Trump and his claque peddled earlier this year.
It's not clear when the court will issue a ruling, but Colorado officials have asked the justices to render their decision before the state's March 5 primary.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News. This article was first published by Accuracy In Media.
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