
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The United States Supreme Court made it very clear that state courts, state legislatures or state officials have no authority to enforce Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. ; By “very clear,” I mean it was a unanimous decision.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">No one should be surprised. ; It was the only decision that makes any constitutional or common sense. ; Democrat efforts to argue this as a states’ rights issue makes no more sense than when they tried to ignore the United States Constitution with slavery, Jim Crow laws and so-called separate-but-equal school segregation as states’ rights issues.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The actions of Colorado, Maine and Illinois to remove Trump from the ballot would make a mockery of presidential elections. ; It would lead to arbitrary decisions by various states to remove unfavored candidates in a hodge-podge of state elections. Very simply, it would end the concept of a national presidential election.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Yes, the Amendment is about insurrection as a specific issue, but so far that has only been a matter of arbitrary political opinions in terms of Trump. ; Those proffering the argument that states can and should remove Trump from state ballots are proposing it as a political process – as opposed to a legal or constitutional process. ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We are living through a case in point. ; While there have been accusations of insurrection, what happened on January 6, 2021, is still a matter of political opinion. ; My own – and millions of others – is that January 6<sup>th</sup> was a riot, not an insurrection. ; The issue of riot versus insurrection has never been adjudicated in a court of law – and only a handful of the thousand on Capitol Hill that day have been found guilty of attempting an insurrection. ; The vast majority of other indictees have been found guilty of crimes commonly associated with rioting.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Colorado Supreme Court opined that Trump was an insurrectionist as the basis of their decision to remove him from the ballot, but that case was not about the insurrection. ; They claimed that Trump was an insurrectionist, but never actually put him on trial for the crime of insurrection. ; The existence of an insurrection, and Trump’s potential involvement, was arbitrarily assumed by the justices. ; Even Special Counsel Jack Smith has not charged Trump with insurrection – and that is THE major case about the events on Capitol Hill.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Consider what could happen if the United States Supreme Court had not ended the folly of states taking presidential candidates off the ballot by politically biased whim – as did the Secretary of State in Maine. ; In Illinois, the determination was made by a Chicago judge who normally handles traffic cases.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">One can appreciate just how wrong Colorado, Maine and Illinois were to have been struck down by a UNANIMOUS court decision – something rarely seen in politically-charged major cases. ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Still, the genetic Trump haters persist. They say the Supreme Court was wrong. ; That the Court made that portion of the Fourteenth Amendment null and void. ; They claim that the High Court made the decision even though they determined that Trump was an “oath breaker” and “insurrectionist.” ; That is what members of the liberal faction said in their CONCURRING opinions. ; Note &#8230; those were not DISSENTING opinions. ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In fact, they were nothing more than arbitrary PERSONAL opinions since the question of Trump’s culpability as an “oath breaker” or “insurrectionist” was not the official matter before the Court. ; It was not a matter before the Colorado courts &#8230; or in Maine’s Secretary of State’s opinion &#8230; or the decision by the Chicago judge to remove Trump in Illinois. ; In fact, Trump is not being prosecuted for insurrection anywhere in the country. ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Those on the radical left have decided that the Court threw the matter to Congress to act, and that will never happen. ; Ergo no proven insurrectionist will ever be denied running for office. ; In fact, people can still be charged with insurrection by federal courts, and if convicted, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment could be invoked.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Characteristic of the leftwing anti-Trump spin was Attorney Lawrence Tribe – a regular guest on MSNBC. (Need I say more?) ; In a display of intellectual dishonesty and mental gymnastics, Tribe claimed it was actually a 5 to 4 decision, with five conservative justices producing the majority. ; He even claimed that the pivotal vote was Justice Thomas, who he said should have recused himself. ; That is a lot of bovine byproduct piled into one statement. ; It demonstrates how far some of the more radical leftwingers will spin fairy tales.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Two facts Tribe is trying to obfuscate. ; It was a 9 to 0 unanimous decision declaring that states do not have the authority to remove federal candidates from the ballot – especially the President.  ;And Thomas was not a pivotal vote any more than any one of the other nine. ; In a 9 to 0 decision, there is no “pivotal vote.” ; And the Court did NOT declare Trump to be an “oath breaker” or “insurrectionist” &#8230; period. ; That is nothing more than a specious campaign narrative proffered in the court of public opinion.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Supreme Court decision was a correct one – the only correct possibility. It was a strong decision without a single dissent. Yes, Trump could be seen as a winner. But so is the Constitution and the nation. It exposes the extent to which the anti-Trumpers will go to stop him out of fear that the American people may reelect him. The Supreme Court showed its value as a pillar of our constitutional democracy by ignoring the conflicting political narratives of the moment to uphold the Constitution.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, there ‘tis.</p>

Court rules Trump to stay on the ballots.
