The reactionary Supreme Court is in a quandary as to how to decide the Trump disqualification case while retaining whatever credibility it has left. The court just voted to review the Colorado Supreme Court decision, but it really didn’t want to.
Who is on the ballot for president is a political question and — although the court has this term wandered into two Trump cases, two abortion cases, one Jan. 6 obstruction case, five First Amendment/social media cases, five administrative law cases challenging the depth of the “deep state,” two major gun cases, a racial gerrymandering matter, ozone pollution rules and three property rights disputes — it normally doesn’t like to get embroiled in the political thicket.
The ethically challenged court is already compromised in this case. Justice Clarence Thomas, unless he recuses himself, is compromised — his wife is identified with the insurrection of Jan. 6. Justice Brett Kavanaugh is compromised; Trump’s lawyer claims Kavanaugh owes Trump big time for his appointment, implying that the former president has him in his pocket. After all, Trump believes we are a government of men, not of laws.
But the Supreme Court had to grant cert. We can’t have electoral chaos in the country, with some states keeping Trump on the ballot and others kicking him off. America needs a uniform national rule.
The six Republican-appointed justices hold themselves out as “originalists,” textualists and strict constructionists in their doctrinal interpretation of the Constitution. If they were honestly true to their faith, they........