CHICAGO – This week, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Donald Trump’s appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision disqualifying him from the ballot for the 2024 presidential election. But the truth is that both the law and the facts are unclear, which means the Supreme Court justices’ political acumen will be tested like never before. Start with the question of whether Trump engaged in “insurrection,” the resonant but undefined core of Section 3. Another is that Trump gave aid and comfort to the insurrection by failing to call in the troops to quell it, and by waiting hours before telling his supporters to go home. The trial court in the Colorado case noted that Section 3 does not explicitly apply to the president.
