GiddyGapThe Supreme Court seems poised to reject efforts to kick Trump off the ballot over the Capitol riot
I wouldn’t count this as over just yet. it makes sense that the judges would reserve their harshest questioning for the side that feels they must upend an election. Even the Liberal justices were wary of that.
They spent very little time on the topic of whether Trump was engaged in insurrection. To me, that means their minds are made up on that, one way or the other. You would think if they were going to let him off the hook based on that, though, they would ask more questions.
I think they will rule that individual states can’t use the amendment to keep candidates off of primary ballots. That much is clear. I wonder if they rule that Trump must remain on the ballot, but cannot serve if he wins – unless waived by Congress. It would make the discussion of Trump’s VP much more interesting.
RubberDuckThere is a near 0 chance SCOTUS will rule beyond what is in front of them. And in this case that is the question if the states have the right to keep candidates off the ballots for the federal election based on article 14 section 3 as this is the justification that was chosen by colorado.
The subjects that will not be touched in this case:
- what defines an insurrection?
- what does it mean to “engage in” an insurrection?
- did trump meet the above requirements?
It is an interesting question, as this asks if the states have the right to determine the answers to the 3 questions above for themselves.
And this is what the main questions today seemed to be about. Because a "yes, states can define this themselves’ would lead to potentially different answers based on the states… and that seems to be an undesired outcome.
The probable outcome is “no states cannot decide” only if there is consensus on the insurrection can this be grounds for exclusion. But how would this then have worked during the post civil war era? As I said… interesting… I’m curious how they will answer… especially the motivation.
And this also allows the conservative judges to leave the 3 questions unanswered for another day…