By Jack Birle | Washington Examiner
The Supreme Court is expected to release a ruling on former President Donald Trump‘s ballot eligibility as soon as Monday, but the high court appears to have already teased some aspects of the pivotal decision.
The case was brought to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Trump was ineligible to run for president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, known as the insurrectionist clause. How the court decides to address the question of Trump’s ballot access will have ramifications in several other states, including Maine and Illinois.
As the country waits for what the justices have to say about states kicking candidates off of ballots for federal office, there are a few signs that indicate Trump is likely to appear on ballots this year.
Expedited timeline
The Supreme Court typically takes months to take a case and issue a decision unless the matter requires urgent action. With the question of Trump’s eligibility, the high court has moved quickly after the former president appealed the Colorado court’s December decision. The Supreme Court agreed to take up the case in January, held oral arguments in February, and could now issue a decision in March.
The court announced on Sunday it would release at least one opinion on Monday but that the justices would not take the bench. As is customary, the court has not said which case(s) it will issue opinions in, but the odds of it being the Trump case appear likely.
The Supreme Court will issue its opinion(s) less than 24 hours before polls in Maine and Colorado open for the presidential primary on Super Tuesday. Both states have allowed Trump on the ballot as he is appealing the question of his eligibility for both states, but some parties, such as the Colorado GOP, have asked the high court to decide on the case before Super Tuesday.
Supreme skepticism during oral arguments
Based on the oral arguments before the court on Feb. 8, Trump looks likely to avoid being removed from the ballot, but how the court will rule specifically and by what margin remains to be seen.
The justices questioned several aspects of the case, appearing more skeptical toward the side trying to disqualify Trump from the ballot. Chief Justice John Roberts asked who decides what is or is not an “insurrection” that is worthy of disqualifying someone via the 14th Amendment.
“What if in another case where that wasn’t a procedure that was filed, somebody — maybe they’ve got a stack of papers saying, ‘Here’s why I think this person is guilty of insurrection,’” Roberts asked during the oral arguments.
Justice Clarence Thomas also asked the lawyers representing the Colorado voters seeking to disqualify Trump whether there was precedent of a state disqualifying a federal office under the constitutional clause.
Jason Murray, an attorney for the group of voters, was only able to provide an example of a Georgia governor denying the election of a former Confederate to Congress.
Bipartisan blowback
Justices questioning Colorado’s argument weren’t on one ideological side, either.
Democratic-appointed Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan had as many concerns about the problems allowing states to remove Trump or another candidate as their Republican-appointed counterparts did.
Jackson, in particular, questioned whether Trump, as a former president, even qualifies as an “officer of the United States,” as laid out in Section 3.
“Why didn’t [the framers] put the word ‘president’ in the very enumerated list in Section 3?” Jackson asked on Feb. 8. “The thing that really is troubling to me is I totally understand your argument, but they were listing people that were barred, and president is not there.”
Kagan appeared to be uncomfortable with the idea of one state being allowed to flex its electoral muscle and alter a countrywide contest.
“What’s a state doing deciding who other citizens get to vote for president?” Kagan asked during the argument.
The high court’s decision will be highly instrumental in how the 2024 election proceeds, as Trump and President Joe Biden appear to be on a collision course for a 2020 general election rematch.
