I just don't see any of this getting past SCOTUS, but apparently there are legal challenges to Trump's 2024 election eligibility in the works in several states, starting with New Hampshire and Arizona.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said Tuesday that his office is figuring out how to handle potential complaints over whether former President Donald Trump should be disqualified from appearing on the 2024 ballot.
The issue centers on the 14th Amendment, which prohibits people who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding public office. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson raised the theory at last week’s GOP presidential debate that Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, might disqualify him on those grounds — a theory that has gained traction among some legal scholars, though others discount the possibility.
Now, the people running state elections are trying to figure out what to do if people bring legal challenges against Trump.
“We have to have a final certification of eligible candidates [for the primary ballot] by Dec. 14 for Arizona’s presidential preference election,” Fontes, a Democrat elected in 2022, told NBC News. “And because this will ultimately end up in court, we are taking this very seriously.”
New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan is dealing with the same question as he watches a potential challenge to Trump brewing in his state. There, a Republican former Trump ally is considering bringing a 14th Amendment challenge against him.
“We need to run an election,” Fontes said. “We need to know who is eligible, and this is of incredible national interest. We aren’t taking a position one way or the other.”
“If there are people who want to fight this out, they need to start swinging because I have an election to run,” Fontes added.
New Hampshire’s Scanlan made the same point on Monday — that he is “not seeking to remove any names from the presidential primary ballot” but is trying to figure out what to do about potential challenges that are brewing.
It'll end up in court and SCOTUS will kill these challenges very quickly, stating that there's no way to disqualify anyone from running under the 14th Amendment, because five or six bought and paid for justices will say so, and that is that.
Even if Trump were somehow tried and convicted by the end of the year, the Roberts Court would mark him eligible to run, he's going to win the primary, and he'll get 75-80 million votes in November 2024. We're going to have to beat him at the ballot box. We've done it before.
I hate to agree with David Frum on anything, but he's right on this. Let the 14th Amendment challenges die. They are doomed wastes of time.
Besides, the clear winner of last week's debate was Donald Trump, and it's not close. GOP primary voters will absolutely nominate him if given a chance, regardless of his criminal status.
The rest of us will have to vote or we will be destroyed.
No comments:
Post a Comment