Thinking back to the 2000 election, one thing that can be learned from the Bush vs. Gore and its impact on the credibility of the Supreme Court is that the court shouldn’t decide the outcome of presidential elections. That job belongs to the people — in the case of voters, Donald Trump, and juries.
That means that the court must find a way to decide the two cases in front of it to preserve the voters’ rights to choose who to vote for and a jury to determine if former President Donald Trump is guilty of conspiring to incite an insurrection. Democracy must win.
The path ahead becomes straightforward. The court can’t allow states the ability to disqualify Trump from appearing on the ballot as the GOP nominee for president. We can’t have a result that will enable states to deny the Republican Party and voters the right to nominate the candidate they clearly want to choose.
The question in the case in Colorado isn’t where the court will come out, but just how they will arrive there.
The most likely path is to emphasize the GOP Party’s rights and voters’ rights. The First Amendment rights of voters are sacred.
While political parties are not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, the presidential nominating process grants supremacy to the political parties’ caselaw, like in state legislatures, to structure the rules. Parties control the selection of delegates process and set rules for the choice of a nominee.
The way to not get there would be for the Supreme Court to take it upon itself to decide that Trump wasn’t guilty of inciting an insurrection. To rely on that ground would be to preempt the role of the jury in the criminal trial Trump could be facing sooner instead of later.
The Supreme Court has allowed Jack Smith until only Tuesday to respond to the former president’s appeal of the unanimous opinion by the D.C. Circuit that rejected his outlandish claim to complete immunity for crimes committed during the period he was president.
The Supreme Court had already turned down the opportunity to decide the case when Jack Smith wanted a sped-up review.
Former President Trump does not want an expedited review. He’s utilizing the Supreme Court to delay the trial amid his presidential campaign.
Polls have shown that as much as 70% of voters consider a felony conviction a disqualification. Trump wants to put the trial on hold while campaigning to avoid a sped-up trial.
For the Supreme Court to use that strategy would damage its credibility, as would a decision in Colorado’s favor. It would compromise the political process and would upset the democratic cart.
Ultimately, the legislation must make sense. What makes sense is a resolution that preserves the voters’ right to choose their candidate.
A jury should decide if Trump committed the crime of conspiracy to incite an insurrection.
The court should make a firm decision and deny Colorado’s move to have the court decide if it can disqualify Trump from the ballot.
Let the voters decide who should be our next president.
