This is where the electoral college potentially becomes a major factor.
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Just to provide some evidence for hope, I think the only guaranteed votes either way on SCOTUS on this issue right now are Thomas, Alito, Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson. Those first two will undoubtedly rule for Trump. The latter three against him. I honestly think the others are hard to predict. They could all go either way.
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The possibilities are interesting. If the SC doesn’t have the gall to claim that the President is not an officer and thus not affected by the 14th, what would they do?
Could they declare Trump ineligible across-the-board? I doubt they would dare even if many republican politicians and donors would like it.
Could they decide that it is a state rights matter and sustain the Colorado decision, or refuse to take the case? I think we would see a number of these lawsuits in many states, not all of them blue; I could definitely see a certain Florida governor making his state SC ban his rival.
This could end up with a fragmented electoral college as there hasn’t been in decades. IIRC electors have the obligation to vote for their state winner, but only in the first round. The next president might be decided by a college voting outside party lines for once.
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… I don’t think I’ve ever called you a name, or told you to “stop” anything 
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ok… into the weeds we (part-time eeyores) go [wink] – do you think Thomas will sensibly recuse himself from this case? His wife had an active part in the insurrection.
Clarence Thomas’ wife linked to Jan. 6 insurrection organizers: report
Ginni Thomas, Wife of Clarence, Cheered On the Rally That Turned Into the Capitol Riot
Legal ethics experts agree: Justice Thomas must recuse in insurrection cases
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Whoa.
You really think I just “called you a name,” because I addressed the defeatist tone of your comment?
Dude…
I consider you a friend.
And just like my friends in 3D meatspace, I have to push back against the idea of giving up before the fight is even fucking over.
I apologize if my phrasing made it seem as if I was somehow insulting you; that wasn’t the intent.
I stand my assessment that being needlessly negative here helps nothing.
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Of course he won’t. Why would he? There’s no ethics rules with any teeth requiring him to. He, along with Alito, and frankly everyone of the Supreme Court, seems to think that the mere questioning of his ability to remain neutral is offensive. He’s a Supreme Court Justice, for God’s sake. Of course he can remain neutral.
We need actual ethics rules for SCOTUS, with actual consequences for not following them. It shouldn’t be up to Thomas to recuse himself. It shouldn’t be up to any judge to recuse themselves. The rules should force it. Unfortunately, they don’t.
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I’m fairly sure it would include “Multiple lawsuits in every state challenging his candidacy citing SCOTUS’ decision.” Followed by appeals in federal court for all the states that refuse to implement SCOTUS’ decision.
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Quite possibly.
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We need actual ethics rules for SCOTUS, with actual consequences for not following them.
Personally after endless calls to impeach Biden for nonsense reasons, I’d like to see the next democrat-majority Congress impeach some Justices for their actual misdeeds.
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Oh Thomas should be impeached. Without a doubt.
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Well, the couple of cases involving Jan. 6th have not gone his way, so maybe not…
I’m concerned about the request from Jack Smith about whether or not Trump has immunity too…
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I haven’t been so proud of Colorado since we legalized weed.
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Yes, well, welcome to the last six years.
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So…. the wording I’ve seen on many websites are variants of:
“it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.”
and:
“Trump kicked off primary ballot”
There is a line about concluding Trump is disqualified from being the president, but the wording makes me feel like his name just won’t be on the primary ballot. What happens if someone writes Donald Trump on their ballot in Colorado; is it a wasted vote, or will it still count?
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They have exactly two choices: declare that he isn’t eligible, or that this clause of the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to Presidents, somehow. Either way they can’t go back on it, and they certainly can’t decide he’s not eligible in Colorado, but is eligible in another state. So any other state where there is a challenge, they will need to rule the same way. They could let this ruling stand, but as soon as there is another state that decides he is eligible they will need to make a choice, one way or another.
True but this Court will do that to preserve Trump’s candidacy. Just like they’ll find he’s immune to prosecution because reasons (which will be so narrowly tailored to fit only him).
I get why everyone wants to celebrate this but let’s all be realistic we can all count to five and get why SCOTUS will do the wrong thing in all cases.
I wish I’d said this:
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Y’all are all wrong. He can’t run for 2024 because he won the 2020 election, as we all know, and no president can serve for more than 2 terms. /steaksandwiches (no hamburgers!)
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Interesting reaction from some pundits: Since the most powerful Republicans in office right now really don’t like having a temperamental four year old calling the shots within the party, this provides the current Supreme Court, who have mostly done the bidding of powerful Republicans, an opportunity to remove that problem entirely and still hold it up as an “originalist” action - matching the original intent of the authors of the 14th Amendment with no mental gymnastics while appeasing their quasi-fictional history fetish.
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