Trump is challenging a groundbreaking decision by the Colorado Supreme Court that said he is disqualified from being president again and ineligible for the state’s primary.
Realistically they’re going to look at precedent, how it was used in the past. The cases where it’s been used in the past fall into two groups - public officials of the Confederacy and people convicted in criminal court of an appropriate charge (which includes one case of someone being convicted of a Jan 6 related charge and before that the last application was a case in 1919 of someone convicted under the Espionage Act).
I fully expect them to say that barring holding a public position in a group whose purpose violates 14A that they would require a criminal conviction. Because that’s the only thing that fits precedent.
The alternative that people seem to be hoping for is that a candidate should be able to be barred from the ballot if a state judge feels it’s likely enough they violated 14A, where “likely enough” isn’t clearly defined (and doesn’t require any particular due process) but is definitely enough to bar Trump. I just don’t think that’s going to happen.
Realistically they’re going to look at precedent, how it was used in the past. The cases where it’s been used in the past fall into two groups - public officials of the Confederacy and people convicted in criminal court of an appropriate charge (which includes one case of someone being convicted of a Jan 6 related charge and before that the last application was a case in 1919 of someone convicted under the Espionage Act).
I fully expect them to say that barring holding a public position in a group whose purpose violates 14A that they would require a criminal conviction. Because that’s the only thing that fits precedent.
The alternative that people seem to be hoping for is that a candidate should be able to be barred from the ballot if a state judge feels it’s likely enough they violated 14A, where “likely enough” isn’t clearly defined (and doesn’t require any particular due process) but is definitely enough to bar Trump. I just don’t think that’s going to happen.