A skeptical Supreme Court debated Donald Trump’s unfitness nine months before the US presidential election

Do Donald Trump’s actions during the storming of the Capitol make him unpopular? On Thursday, a majority of the justices on the US Supreme Court, tasked with dealing with this explosive issue less than nine months before a presidential election, expressed their doubts. The former president, an arch-favorite in the Republican primaries, is asking to overturn a decision by a Colorado court in December ordering him removed from the ballot in the western state.

Legal commentators argue about the validity as well as the political expediency of such a process. But everyone agrees that the conservative majority court, burned by the outcome of its 2000 decision by Republican George W. Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore, wanting to avoid being exposed to suspicions of election meddling.

During the nearly two-hour hearing, several judges, whether conservative or progressive, expressed their doubts. “Why should a state have the ability to make this decision, not just for its own citizens, but for the rest of the nation as well?”, asked Elena Kagan, appointed by Democrat Barack Obama. The president of the court, conservative John Roberts, was worried “Results” Colorado decision. “If Colorado’s position is maintained, there will certainly be disqualification proceedings on the other side”he said. “I expect a lot of states will say, ‘You’re off the ballot,’ regardless of who the Democratic nominee is.”.

“Anomaly”

Of the twenty states that filed impeachment petitions against Donald Trump, only two were successful, Colorado and Maine. Many states are still awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision. Donald Trump’s lawyers hail the Colorado decision“Anomaly” And call the Supreme Court to overturn it “Protect the Rights of the Millions of Americans Who Wanted to Vote for President Trump”.

He devotes much of his final written argument to a seemingly secondary issue, attempting to demonstrate that the President of the United States is not one of the offices covered by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment, adopted in 1868, then targeted supporters of the defeated Southern Confederacy during the Civil War (1861–1865). He is excluded from the highest public functions which are engaged in acts “rebellion” After taking an oath to defend the Constitution. Colorado courts held that Donald Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021 fell within the 14th Amendment.

That day, hundreds of supporters of the outgoing president, particularly incensed by his baseless accusations of election fraud, stormed the Capitol, a sanctuary of American democracy, to try to block his Democratic opponent Joe Biden’s certificate of victory. Donald Trump’s lawyers say January 6, 2021 was not a coup and their client was in no way involved.

On January 6, 2021, “There were no guns, there was nothing (…) If you take a look at what I said after (…) you will see some very beautiful statements, which make it really touching”, Donald Trump said Thursday from his luxury residence at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. The Republican confirmed that he followed the debates at the high court in Washington in the morning.

“Escape”

The largely unprecedented nature of the case complicates any predictions, but many experts attribute the lure of finding nine justices. “Escape” To keep Donald Trump’s name on the ballot without venturing into the minefield of justifying his actions during an attack on the Capitol. “In such a politically heated case, the court wants to appear as apolitical as possible.”, explains AFP Steven Schwinn, a constitutional law professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. According to him, “The most likely escape route for him would be to claim that only Congress has the power to remove a candidate from the ballot for a presidential election.”.

That’s an argument made by Donald Trump’s lawyers, but contested by jurists who insist that imposing a minimum age on candidates or other eligibility conditions, such as their place of birth, requires no intervention from Congress. “We fully understand that members of the court would prefer not to find themselves embroiled in a presidential election in this way. But there is no escape from it.”, three famous jurists from different political backgrounds write in a memoir. Edward Foley, Benjamin Ginsburg and Richard Hassan urge the nine justices to rule on merits, not questions of form, to definitively cut the Gordian knot before Nov. 5, the day of the vote.