[ad_1]
The U.S. Supreme Court met for over two hours on Tuesday to hear oral arguments on whether the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause bars former president Donald Trump from appearing on the ballot in Colorado and other states because of his role in the deadly Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
Justices on both ideological sides of the bench seemed skeptical of arguments to uphold Colorado’s decision and effectively kick Trump off ballots nationwide, wrestling with the practical implications of what would happen if they ruled that way. “I think that the question that you have to confront is why a single state should decide who gets to be president of the United States,” said Justice Elena Kagan, one of the court’s three liberal Justices.
“It just doesn’t seem like a state call,” said Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump-appointee. Chief Justice John Roberts also worried about retaliation if their ruling upholds Trump being kicked off the ballot by Colorado: “I would expect that a goodly number of states will say, ‘whoever the Democratic candidate is, you’re off the ballot,’” he predicted.
Trump v. Anderson marks the first khbrknews the nation’s highest court has considered a presidential candidate’s ballot eligibility for potentially engaging in insurrection, and is the Supreme Court’s most direct involvement in a presidential election since Bush v. Gore in 2000. The outcome could have massive political implications for Trump, who is currently in the lead for the Republican presidential nomination. A ruling against the former President could forever disqualify him from the presidency, placing the Supreme Court in an uncomfortable position at the center of another presidential election.
Read More: Supreme Court Hears High-Stakes Case Seeking to Oust Trump from 2024 Ballots
The explosive political stakes of the case were made clear when Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that the attempt to remove the former President from the ballot “has the effect of…
[ad_2]
