OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Numerous amicus briefs have been submitted in the case of Trump v. Anderson, raising the question of whether former President Donald Trump is qualified to seek the presidency again under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr and legal scholar Seth Barrett Tillman were among those endorsing Trump’s eligibility.
“We appreciate fully that the Members of this Court would prefer not to be thrust into the midst of a presidential election like this. But there is no avoiding it,” the election attorneys wrote. “Any contention that the time and place for determining Section 3’s applicability is on January 6, 2025, after the election is concluded, invites disaster for the Nation.”
Michigan’s Secretary of State and election law experts urged the court to make a definitive ruling.
“As time has passed and new election cycles have begun, some have tried to rewrite the history and significance of the insurrection on January 6,” a brief read. “But any reasonable, good-faith consideration of the events surrounding January 6 necessitates the conclusion that Trump encouraged an armed, violent mob to prevent Congress from taking an essential step in the transition of presidential power.”
On the other side, former Republican officials and federal judge J. Michael Luttig pushed for Trump’s disqualification, with Capitol police officers also filing a brief against Trump.
“Mr. Trump deliberately tried to break the Constitution—to incite threatened and actual armed force to prevent the peaceful transfer of executive power,” Luttig and the officials wrote. “That constituted engaging in an insurrection against the Constitution.”
Trump responded last week to good news from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The nation’s highest court heard arguments in a landmark legal case to decide whether Trump can be on the ballot in November’s election.
The justices were skeptical of Colorado’s decision to disqualify the former president and asked tough questions of the lawyer from the state.
Colorado’s top court previously ruled Trump was not eligible to be on the ballot because he supposedly engaged in insurrection at the US Capitol. Trump appealed the decision, and the justices on Thursday appeared poised to side with the 45th president.
Speaking to reporters outside of Mar-a-Lago, Trump just called the Supreme Court hearing “a very beautiful process,” adding that he hopes democracy will continue.
“So I just say that in watching the Supreme Court today, I thought it was very — it’s a very beautiful process. I hope that democracy of this country will continue, because right now we have a very, very tough situation with all of the radical left ideas, with the weaponization of politics. They weaponized it like it’s never been weaponized before. It’s totally illegal, but they do it anyway,” Trump said.
“And it has to stop. Every one of the court cases and I’m involved, every single one, civil, whether it’s the attorney generals or the district attorneys. You look at Fani in Georgia. They had many meetings with the White House and with the DoJ. They went there, eight hour meetings. It was all staged. It was a phony hoax. And now you’re looking at it and it is a phony hoax. And hopefully that case will be dismissed in short order. It’s a — it’s a disgrace to this country, But they work together with the Justice Department and the White House and not supposed to do that,” Trump added.
“Every one of these cases you see comes out of the White House, it comes out of Biden, it’s election interference, and it’s really very sad. I thought the presentation today was a very good one. I think it was well received — I hope it was well received. You have millions of people that are out there wanting to vote, and they happen to want to vote for me or the Republican Party, or whatever you want to — however you want to phrase it,” Trump continued.
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Trump went on to call President Joe Biden “the worst president in the history of our country,” adding that he “can’t put two sentences together.”
