If Donald Trump loses, the Supreme Court insurrection problem goes away
The Supreme Court’s credibility is at an all-time low. The last thing the court needs is the perception that it made a craven decision on the question of Donald Trump’s constitutional disqualification on the Colorado ballot for engaging in insurrection. But based on the oral arguments before the court Thursday, it looks like form will likely triumph over substance potentially doing the institution further injury.
The Trump disqualification case, Trump v. Anderson, could bury the court deeper in public esteem, especially if the court majority swallows some of Trump’s weakest arguments such as his claim that only “officers of the United States” are covered by the disqualification provision and that the president isn’t an officer of the United States. Unfortunately, at oral argument, Justice Neil Gorsuch and, surprisingly, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson seemed attracted by this claim.
They assume that the drafters decided to focus on excruciatingly fine distinctions in uses of the word “officers” while equally assuming that the drafters got busy doing other things and forgot to prevent a person who tried overthrowing our government from winding up running it from the most powerful post in the land—the presidency. Neither of these justices grappled with the absurdity of this assumption.
The impartial thing for the Supreme Court to do would be to uphold the Colorado disqualification ruling. But, if the court overturns it, it must do so without demolishing what’s left of the pedestal on which it once stood so high.
