Trump supporters participate in a rally in Washington in this Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol. After showing a remarkable lack of interest in the underlying facts, the U.S. Supreme Court has kept an adjudicated insurrectionist — who is, by definition, unfit to be president — on the ballot.
Apart from the substance of the ruling, the partisanship of the court’s timing is glaring: It took them only three weeks to restore an insurrectionist to the ballot, but they need seven months to rule that presidents can’t assassinate their rivals.Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is short, does not lack clarity, and is not ambiguous. It bars anyone from federal office who “engaged in insurrection” after they swore an oath to support the Constitution.
It’s hard to appreciate how years of election chaos from an insurrectionist trying to overturn an election are preferable to a state supreme court — or the U.S. Supreme Court — enforcing the plain terms of the Constitution.The court’s 5-4 majority decided that Section 3 isn’t self-executing, meaning it has no force or effect in the absence of additional congressional action.
While it’s comforting to be reminded that the Supreme Court can move with alacrity when it wants to — such as when it decided the 2020 election for George W. Bush in a matter of days — the quick timing on Trump’s insurrection stands in stark contrast to the presidential immunity case, on which SCOTUS has been deliberately dragging its feet for months.