Trump v. Anderson

The Supreme Court heard arguments this morning on the constitutionality of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision banning Donald Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment’s Insurrection Clause. We expect a quick decision. The questioning from the justices strongly suggests that former President Trump will prevail.

Commentators across the spectrum agreed that even two of the court’s liberals, Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, seemed unconvinced by the argument that the 14th Amendment prevents Donald Trump from appearing on the ballot.

As Professor Jonathan Turley, an expert on constitutional law, noted, “Some of the toughest and most skeptical questions came from the left of the court.”

In order to get the largest possible majority, the justices may issue a narrow ruling that avoids some of the bigger issues involved in this case. But, in my opinion, it is clear that the Insurrection Clause does not apply.

That clause was written after the Civil War, after multiple states raised an army and fought a war that killed 600,000 Americans in an effort to split the nation in half. That’s what the clause was written to address, not a raucous riot on Capitol Hill.

Don’t forget that Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney and the rest of that gang started using the word “insurrection” within days of January 6th because they already had their eye on exactly the situation we’re facing right now.

I believe that lends credence to the idea that the riot was allowed to happen. We know that significant intelligence was ignored by security officials.

We know that Trump offered to deploy the National Guard days before and that a request by the Capitol Police for an early National Guard deployment was denied.

We know Pelosi’s kangaroo court brought in a Big Media executive to turn the hearings into a “made for TV special.”

We know the January 6th Committee destroyed documents when it was ordered to preserve them.

But here’s the bottom line: Progressives are claiming that the biggest issue in this election is protecting democracy. Yet progressives in multiple states are attempting to kick a leading presidential candidate off the ballot or throw him in jail before the election.

Some on the far left regularly fantasize about Trump dying in prison. And yet they are running around claiming they want to unite the country and that they are the “tolerant” and “compassionate” ones.

Yes, there is a real threat to our democratic process and to our constitutional republic. But it’s not coming from conservatives.