The Supreme Court seems to moving quickly in President Trumpâs ballot disqualification appeal, promising written opinions on day one of oral hearings.
The U.S. Supreme Court has signaled that itâs moving fast with former President Donald Trumpâs appeal that seeks to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court ruling barring him from the ballot on 14th Amendment grounds.
While the substance of the opinions has not been revealed, the declaration that they will be published on Feb. 8 is significant as it indicates that the Supreme Court views the case as having significant legal importance and warrants expedited consideration.
What Will SCOTUS Do?
The Colorado high court, which is composed entirely of Democrat appointees, determined in a 4â3 ruling in December that President Trump had engaged in an âinsurrectionâ in the context of the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol, and so he is ineligible to run for president.
The ruling was based on an interpretation of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars any former oath-taking âofficer of the United Statesâ who âengaged in insurrectionâ from âholding any office, civil or military.â
Legal experts have said there are several ways the Supreme Court could reverse the Colorado decision without weighing into the substance of whether President Trump âengaged in insurrectionâ on Jan. 6.
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âThereâs a fairly good chance that they’ll find a way to duck that,â Harvard Law professor emeritus and constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe told ABC News.
One such way would be for the Supreme Court to say that the U.S. President isnât an âofficer of the United Statesâ but part of the executive branch and rule that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment simply doesnât apply.
âMore boldly, the Court could hold that the conjunction of Trumpâs tweets and speeches, the January 6 report, and expert testimony were not âclear and convincing evidenceâ that Trump engaged in insurrection,â Mr. Unikowsky wrote.
Whichever path the Supreme Court chooses, Mr. Unikowsky said that writing an opinion in the case will be a formidable challenge.
âItâs a head-scratcher,â he said.
âChaos And Bedlamâ
In their opening brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 18, President Trumpâs attorneys asked the high court to reverse the Colorado ruling, arguing that other states are following suit with similar 14th Amendment-based legal challenges and that preventing Americans from being able to vote for him in the 2024 Republican primary would âunleash chaos and bedlam.â
The attorneys revealed in the brief that efforts are underway in over 30 states to keep President Trump off the ballot, all based on the theory that he somehow engaged in an insurrection and so should be disqualified from holding office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
The logic of applying this section of the Constitution is based on the presumption that the Jan. 6, 2021 incident was an insurrection in which President Trump supposedly engaged by encouraging his supporters to protest at the U.S. Capitol against the certification of electoral college votes in what he insisted was a âriggedâ election.
In their brief, President Trumpâs attorneys argued that the Colorado Supreme Courtâs disqualification ruling was âbased on a dubious interpretationâ of the 14th Amendment while relying heavily âon a hearsay congressional report and experts of dubious reliability.â
âMost Court watchers think the justices will blink and find a way to avoid ruling against the former president,â Kent Greenfield, a law professor and former Supreme Court law clerk, wrote in a recent op-ed for WBUR. âTo bar him would require a nervy assertion of judicial authority.â
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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