Former federal prosecutor and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner expressed on Friday that it would be “inconceivable” for the Supreme Court to permit former President Donald Trump to return to the White House amid ongoing efforts to remove him from state ballots.
According to a report by Newsweek on Saturday, December 30, 2023, Trump, currently the leading candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, faces challenges as he endeavors to reclaim the presidency from incumbent President Joe Biden.
In hypothetical general election polling match-ups, Trump and Biden find themselves in a tight race, with varying polls indicating different leads for the candidates.
Despite Trump’s popularity among Republican voters, he encountered a significant setback when the Colorado Supreme Court and Maine’s secretary of state ruled him ineligible to appear on the ballots in their respective states.
These decisions cited Trump’s alleged involvement in instigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and invoked the 14th Amendment, which includes a clause barring anyone participating in an insurrection from holding elected office.
While these rulings are expected to undergo appeals and litigation, they mark a significant step forward in the efforts to disqualify Trump from the presidential race.
Trump, denying engagement in an insurrection during the Capitol riot, faces opposition from GOP supporters who downplay the event’s severity and question its classification as an attempted insurrection.
Following the adverse rulings, the Colorado Republican Party sought intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, filing a 34-page petition arguing that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment does not apply to the office of the president.
Additionally, they contended that the clause is not self-executing, emphasizing that only Congress possesses the authority to enforce it.
Responding to this appeal, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), the legal watchdog group that initiated the original lawsuit against Trump, petitioned the Supreme Court for an expedited review of the Colorado ruling, asserting that the case should be resolved before primary voting commences in January.
In a YouTube video on Friday, Glenn Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent Trump critic, addressed the recent ballot removal decisions, labeling the disqualification clause of the 14th Amendment as “53 simple, straightforward, unmistakable words” that render it “inconceivable” for Trump to run for president again.
“I want to say it’s ‘almost’ inconceivable, but you know what? I’m going to drop the ‘almost’: it is inconceivable that the United States Supreme Court would rule that someone who holds the office of president, who then engaged in insurrection, should be permitted to hold the office of president again,” Kirschner stated.
“That would violate those 53 clear, unmistakable words in the 14th Amendment…and it would certainly violate the spirit of the 14th Amendment, Section 3.”
Legal challenges to Trump’s ballot placement, often citing the 14th Amendment’s Section 3, have faced mixed outcomes.
States like Michigan, Minnesota, Florida, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire have seen dismissals, while decisions in states like New York, New Jersey, Texas, and others are still pending.
