All opinions expressed in this article are solely the opinions of the contributors.
The Supreme Court case Trump v. Anderson will decide whether former President Donald Trump is eligible to run as a candidate for president in 2024. Some constitutional law experts have argued that Trump cannot run as a candidate, citing what they say is a clear violation of the 14th Amendment in the U.S. Constitution, which states that no individual who participates in rebellion or insurrection against the United States can be eligible for any public office. However, the case also involves questions about the agency of individual states to make that determination on their own.
Straight Arrow News contributor John Fortier analyzes the signals coming out of the Supreme Court to assess how the justices might rule on the case. Fortier argues that Trump’s role in Jan. 6 is only one of several important questions that the justices must rule on, and that these other questions might severely complicate the final ruling. In the end, Fortier says, U.S. voters may have to decide Trump’s fate at the ballot box in November.
Recently, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the Trump v. Anderson case, which could determine whether President Trump appears on the ballot or whether he is disqualified for participating in an insurrection.
The case is at once momentous. Imagine the chaos that would ensue in removing a major party presidential candidate from the ballot well into election season. But at the same time, the case is technical, dealing with a previously obscure part of the Constitution, involving questions of interpretation of what the word “insurrection” or the phrase “officer of the United States” means.
The crux of the case is a section of the 14th Amendment that banned certain government officials who participated in an insurrection from holding office. The direct issue at hand was the fate of thousands of federal, state and local officeholders who supported the Confederacy in the Civil War. But even though almost all the cases involving disqualification from office for insurrection occurred in the aftermath of the Civil War, the provision was written broadly enough that it might apply to officeholders who participate in an insurrection in the future.
