Castro v. Trump, a case challenging Trump’s candidacy with the 14th Amendment, is expected to decided by the justices on or before October 9.
Castro v. Trump, a case challenging Trump’s candidacy with the 14th Amendment, is expected to decided by the justices on or before October 9.
It seems to me that this is a dangerous game being played here. There is no ruling here that will lead to an overall positive outcome or be seen as legitimate by broad swaths of the country. I see any ruling creating more trouble than it solves.
To be clear, defeating Trump one last time in an election also isn’t going to solve anything, given how far gone the GOP is at this point. But it’ll be a damn sight better than the kind of political games that will start popping up if this works and better than giving Republicans a way to claim Trump was found not guilty of insurrection in court if it doesn’t.
The 14th amendment does not require a conviction.
It’s not like Trump can claim to have conceded in November. Afaik there’s no record of anything like that before the insurrection.
I understand the 14th doesn’t require a conviction. But the SC ruling that Trump does not need to be removed from the ballot sure would look an awful lot like a ruling of “not guilty of insurrection” to a sizable segment of the population.
And the SC ruling that Trump should be removed from the ballot (1) will begin an absolute shitstorm and (2) opens up plenty of other candidates and politicians to shitty political games around this. How strongly can you criticize the actions of the federal or state governments with regards to LGBT rights, abortion, etc before you’re “providing aid or comfort to the enemies [of the US]”?
And any ruling is going to entrench everyone further into their view of “activist judges” that are part of a “politically-motivated” court.
I know that “half the country is insane” isn’t a great reason to avoid this, but honestly applying a hastily passed and vaguely written post Civil War provision to this current situation in our current society seems like it will do more harm than good.