CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – If you were going to sum up yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling in one sentence, it would be this: “Congress, not the states, gets to decide who is an insurrectionist.”
And, while the court ruled unanimously that Colorado may not take Donald Trump off the ballot, the Court’s ruling that Congress gets to settle future questions of insurrection is significant. And, remember, that’s a step beyond the actual case that the court considered. It will stop ambitious district attorneys from filing insurrection charges; it will block state courts like Colorado’s from reaching their own conclusions about who is and isn’t an insurrectionist.
I am both surprised and pleased that the ruling was unanimous. Even the Court’s liberal wing realized that some states throwing some candidates off the ballot undermines democracy. We can’t have legitimate presidential elections if there’s a patchwork of states were voters can’t choose between the leading candidates.
It is also important to remember that only 5 of the 9 justices favored leaving the insurrection issue up to Congress.
There is a bigger step that the five justices in the majority should have taken, but didn’t. It would have been a simple statement, something like this: “One of the guiding principles in our democracy is that political differences are settled at the ballot box, not through litigation. That would have been significant. It would have sent the message that the court is dubious about lawsuits, and prosecutions, designed to disqualify or stymie political candidates. Signaling that voting will be favored over lawsuits to determine who our elected leaders are.
Such a message would keep many of these lawsuits against Donald Trump from being brought in the first place. All of the cases against Donald Trump are novel, using the law in ways it hasn’t been before. Prosecutors might take a “why even bother” approach if they know the Supreme Court is likely to rule against them.
Vladimir Putin throws his political opponents in the gulag. Americans let politicians with different views campaign and appeal to the people, then the voters decide.
Chris Conley
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