Monday's 9-0 Supreme Court vote in Trump vs. Anderson was noted as much for its rare unanimous decision as for its subject matter. The high court ruled in favor of former President Donald Trump, saying that state-level courts and other officials did not have the authority to determine candidates on a federal ballot.
The Colorado Supreme Court set this in motion in December when it declared Trump ineligible for the ballot in its state.
Maine Secretary of State Sheena Bellows followed suit, bypassing the court in her state, and declaring Trump ineligible. Like the Colorado justices, Bellows cited "insurrection" against Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 demonstration at the U.S. Capitol, Trump's efforts to retain the presidency after his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
More recently an Illinois judge joined the "Get Trump" party by ruling Trump ineligible for that state's primary election and citing Jan. 6.
Arguments in all three cases were based on a clause in the Constitution's 14th Amendment which prohibits any person who "engaged in insurrection" against the United States from holding any civil, military or elected office without the approval of two-thirds of the House and Senate.
Ron Coleman, a Dhillon Law Group counsel who worked on the case, appeared on American Family Radio Tuesday following the unanimous ruling.
"This was one finally that the Court – even to a limited extent, still withholding judgment on some important issues – made a clear ruling," he stated. "The 14th Amendment prohibition of the holding of office by an insurrectionist is not a political plaything for individual states to decide who they will deem an insurrectionist by whatever means they want to in order to prevent somebody from being on the ballot for president."
No easy thing for liberal justices
Coleman told show host Jenna Ellis it's important to note the stand taken by liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. He acknowledged that breaking from their left-of-center stance was not an easy thing.
"These are highly contentious issues, and I think that it's really important to recognize just what an important stand the three concurring left-wing judges on the court did, their druthers and their views of the matter notwithstanding both politically and ideologically; and in terms of legal theory … they did the right thing.
"I think the United States Supreme Court is one of the few institutions left that you've got a real shot at them doing the right thing, not every time, but often, and this was one of those cases," Coleman said.
Trump broke from his flair for self-promotion on the Boston-based Howie Carr Show when the former president spoke of the decision's impact on the nation's highest elected office.
"This is for future presidents, for all presidents," he told Carr before shifting gears toward the next big case to be hard by the Supreme Court.
"The next thing coming up is of equal importance: immunity – because presidents have to have immunity or they won't be able to function. They'll be ceremonial," Trump claimed.
The Supreme Court's ruling in that case will impact the many other active cases against Trump. Until then, Monday's ruling has no bearing on the other cases.
J. Christian Adams, a Department of Justice attorney under George W. Bush, said while the other cases are alive, Democrats' pursuit of an insurrection charge against Trump may not be dead.
"They've got about four other tracks going. They've got the New York track, they've got the [classified] documents track. They've got the Atlanta track. So it really doesn't cross tracks with those other cases. Those cases are going to keep on chugging. What you're going to watch now is the lunacy amp up where they say we should have Congress decide that he engaged in insurrection. You're actually seeing some of that talk about that," Adams said on Washington Watch Monday.
The former DOJ attorney reminded show host Tony Perkins that Trump was never indicted on an insurrection charge by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith and was acquitted of that charge by the Senate.
"That was the only guidance we got from a deliberative body, and it was an acquittal, not a conviction. Now you lost 9-nothing. Give it up on this insurrection stuff," he advised.
Adams argued the Democrats who pushed insurrection to this level should be held accountable.
"You can look up all the academics and all of the Never-Trumpers and the bulwark and Sheena Bellows, the Maine Secretary of State, Colorado Secretary Jena Griswold … these are the people who substituted their own version of the law for what the law actually is," he said.
"The 9-nothing decision [said] that only the Constitution can define the criteria for president and that state officials can't remove people running for federal office from the ballot. It's cut and dried, 9-0. Why are these people dragging the country through this?" he asked.
Breaking up the Left's idols
Adams answered his own question this way.
"He [Trump] is unafraid to break up their idols. Whether it's political correctness, whether it's race obsession, whether it's America is bad, whether it's illegal aliens should be tolerated – whatever it is, he is willing to shatter the idols of the Left and not be afraid.
"That just so disturbs the Left that he is calling them out and ridiculing their 40-year trophies that they've acquired; 50 or 60 years, whenever you want to start the march through the institutions, Trump is calling them out and saying, 'This is not what America is about,'" Adams said.
