On Friday afternoon the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear former President Donald Trump’s appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove his name from that state’s Republican primary ballot.
It’ll come to a head early next month.
The court scheduled oral arguments for Thursday, Feb. 8, at what George Washington Law professor Jonathan Turley described as a "Nascar pace."
It should be an easy win for him, and not just because the high court is considered to be heavily conservative.
We should expect a 9-0 decision in Trump’s favor.
At issue is how to interpret Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
This was a post-Civil War amendment disqualifying anyone from elective office who had sworn to uphold the Constitution as a government official but later served in the Confederacy.
It specifically bars anyone who’d served as “an officer of the United States” and has previously taken an oath to support the U.S. Constitution from holding "any office . . . under the United States" if he has "engaged in insurrection."
Colorado claims that Section 3 bars Trump from election because he participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot.
The Colorado opinion was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court by both Trump and the Colorado Republican Party.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, represents the party. He said that the state court’s ruling "presents a constitutional crisis, national in scope."
If it's allowed to stand, he cautioned, "any voter will have the power to sue to disqualify any political candidate," which will "not only distort the 2024 presidential election but will also mire courts henceforth in political controversies over nebulous accusations of insurrection."
Similarly, Trump’s lawyers, the Washington, D.C.-based Dhillon Law Group, warned that the state court’s decision could be "used as a template to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters nationwide."
Trump has the support of 27 states, who each filed amicus briefs with the court.
George Washington University Law professor Jonathan Turley noted the lack of logic in Colorado’s argument: "Activists are pushing to save democracy by denying it to voters."
He then likened the situation to Henry Ford’s decision to make the Model T available only in the color black.
"He pledged to provide 'any color the customer wants, as long as it’s black,'" Turley quipped. Likewise, "in some states, voters can choose anyone they want, as long as it is Biden."
The Washington Examiner’s chief political correspondent Byron York observed that the brief filed by Trump’s legal team argues that the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to presidents:
"Section 3 begins '[n]o person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State . . . ' It does not list the presidency.
"Moreover, it lists offices in descending order, beginning with the highest federal officers and progressing to the catch-all term ‘any office, civil or military, under the United States.'"
From this they reasoned that "to find that section 3 includes the presidency, one must conclude that the drafters decided to bury the most visible and prominent national office in a catch-all term that includes low ranking military officers, while choosing to explicitly reference presidential electors.
"This reading defies common sense and is not correct."
Trump will need to file his opening brief on the merits by Thursday, Jan. 18. The response brief by the Colorado voters and secretary of state have to be filed by Wednesday, Jan. 31. Trump’s reply brief is due on Feb. 5.
The 27 states that filed amicus briefs in support of Trump will be held to the same timetable as Trump.
Attorney and blogger Aaron Walker suggested that "In any case, there also is a strong question of whether a riot could count as insurrection."
Although that’s certainly true, it’s also unlikely that the court will address that issue.
But even without considering that question, this should be an easy win for the former president. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to the president, and Trump did nothing to support or instigate the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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