By Eshaan Joshi
So, Donald John Trump huh? Look, I don’t like talking about politics, but there’s something up with that guy. He’s in the news a lot. Might as well take a look and see why.
Oh. Oh god. It’s bad.
So, if you live under a rock (good choice, you subleasing?), or you just don’t care about politics, former president Donald Trump is currently fighting in the courts for his right to get back on the ballot, following the Colorado Supreme Court decision to remove him for his indictment over the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.
Digging into the case, there are a few glaring issues. First, it’s likely that Trump will win this case. The U.S. Supreme Court has three people he appointed, and Colorado’s case is built on slightly shaky ground. There are a few arguments that would demonstrate that Colorado can’t do this. Throw those in front of the court, pack it up, and it’s over, Trump’s back on the ballot.
Except the former president’s legal team isn’t doing that. They’ve decided on a novel approach, explaining that presidents are not an “officer of the United States.”
Yep. You’re not an officer of the U.S. as president. Everyone else in government? Sure. Not the president, though. The argument essentially says:, “The law was meant to keep Confederates from getting power again, but you see, the President ain’t no Reb,.” wWhich honestly is a bold argument, and while the brief also contains a few pages in favor of an actual argument, this doesn’t bode well for SCOTUS in making a decision based on the briefs they’ve been handed. Now, there’s another small issue. There seem to be a few things indicating Trump wants to punt the power of ballots directly back to the states, something which would irreparably change U.S. election law. Imagine that, in response to Colorado removing Trump, Texas just disqualified Biden. That’s not a good situation, and there are a few interpretations of the brief that seem to imply that.
Comparatively, there are the briefs coming from Colorado. The argument is simple: Trump was prosecuted for insurrection, the courts in the state found him guilty, he’s banned from the ballot. It’s unlikely this case wins — the argument of keeping him on the ballot because of a violation of the 14th amendment seems the most likely as it stands — but it’s a pretty strong argument. Colorado could also win if the court tells them they just violated due process, giving Colorado the opportunity to re-try the president and see if they can do this whole thing one more time. Either way, it really depends on how much SCOTUS cares about Colorado calling the former president an insurrectionist.
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