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If Trump appeals Colorado 14th Amendment decision, SCOTUS is forced between a rock and a hard place. [1]
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Date: 2023-12-21
Watching Alex Wagner on MSNBC last night, she successfully laid bare the SCOTUS’s exposure if they decide to take up an intended yet filed appeal to the recent Colorado State Supreme court ruling on the 14th Amendment, Section 3 case.
This is an exerpt of the subject as reported by Alex Wagner:
“The Colorado State Supreme Court did some very, very deep research to make the case that yes, this sure does apply to presidents and presidential candidates and to that end among the best and deepest cuts cited in this ruling is this one.”
It is a conversation between two senators in the year 1866 as they were literally writing the 14thAmendment. Senator Reverdy Johnson worried that the final version of Section 3 did not include the office of the presidency. He stated that, “this amendment does not go far enough because past rebels may be elected President or Vice President of the United States.” So he asked, “Why did you omit to exclude them? I do not understand them to be excluded from the privilege of holding the two highest offices in the gift of the nation.”
Senator Lot Morrill fielded this objection he replied, “Let me call the Senator's attention into the words “or hold any office civil or military under the United States.” This answer satisfied Senator Johnson who stated, “Perhaps I am wrong as to the exclusion from the presidency; no doubt I am.”
Alex Wagner continued, “The Senators who literally wrote the 14thAmendment, specifically meant for it to the presidency. It doesn't get any more originalist that that my friends and that is exactly the point here. Adam Serwer argues in the Atlantic today that this ruling from the Colorado State Supreme Court is going to put the SCOTUS conservatives between a rock and a hard place.”
The court's conservative justices often justify their decisions through the legal philosophy of originalism or trying to interpret what the founders meant when they wrote the Constitution. So, Serwer writes that this Colorado Supreme Court ruling is calling the bluff of the SCOTUS's originalists forcing its conservative justices to choose between their perported legal philosophy and the partisan interests of the party with which they identify.
So, it would seem now Trump has until January 4th to appeal the Colorado State Supreme Court decision and his campaign says it plans to and when that happens, it will put the issue on hold until the SCOTUS makes its decision, meaning Trump will likely be on the Colorado Republican Primary ballot. But, whether he appears on the general election ballot in Colorado and potentially in any other states that could follow Colorado's lead, all of that will rest once again in the hands of the SCOTUS.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/21/2213115/-If-Trump-appeals-Colorado-14th-Amendment-decision-SCOTUS-is-forced-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
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