Democrats have gone too far in their efforts to throw Donald Trump off the ballot.
But there’s no hope for their legal case now.
Clarence Thomas asked one question that crushed Democrats’ effort to disqualify Trump.
The Supreme Court is considering Colorado’s case to remove Donald Trump from their primary ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas asked Jason Murray, the attorney arguing the case for Colorado, if there were any examples of national candidates being disqualified by state officials. Murray struggled to come up with an answer.
Murray argued that states have the power to run elections, but Thomas quickly countered his argument.
“But would seem that — particularly after Reconstruction and after the Compromise of 1877 and during the period of Redeemers — that you would have that kind of conflict. There were a plethora of Confederates still around. There were any number of people who would continue to either run for state offices or national offices,” Thomas said, adding this reality would “suggest that there would at least be a few examples of national candidates being disqualified.”
“Well, there were certainly national candidates who are disqualified by Congress refusing to seat them,” Murray said, however, Thomas pointed out that is “not this case.”
“Other than the example I gave, no,” Murray admitted.
“What was the purpose of Section Three? States were sending people — the concern was that the former Confederate states would continue being bad actors,” Thomas said.
“And the effort was to prevent them from doing this and you’re saying that well, this also authorized states to disqualify candidates. So what I’m asking you for, if you are right, what are the examples?” Thomas asked again.
“Your Honor, the examples are states excluded many candidates for state office, individuals holding state offices. We have a number of published cases of states,” Murray responded before Thomas interjected.
“I understand the states controlling state elections and state positions. What we are talking about here are national candidates,” Thomas said noting there were people who “felt very strongly about retaliating against the South, the Radical Republicans, but they did not think about authorizing the South to disqualify national candidates, and that’s the argument you’re making.”
Even Chief Justice John Roberts doubted the case put forward by Colorado and said the argument was “at war with the whole thrust of the 14th Amendment and very ahistorical.”
Roberts was also concerned how states would use this power in the future.
“I would expect that a goodly number of states will say, whoever the Democratic candidate is, you’re off the ballot. And others, for the Republican candidate, you’re off the ballot, and it’ll come down to just a handful of states that are going to decide the presidential election,” Roberts said. “That’s a pretty daunting consequence.”
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