Elie Mystal: Get ready for the Supreme Court to 'go against the 14th Amendment'

Many critics of former President Donald Trump have been applauding a decision handed down by the Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday, December 19, when the justices ruled, 4-3, that Trump is disqualified from the state's ballot based on Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment. Section 3 states that an "officer" who has engaged in insurrection is barred from running for public office again.

Progressive attorney Elie Mystal, a frequent guest on MSNBC, applauds the ruling in an article published by The Nation the following day. But he also warns that the U.S. Supreme Court will likely strike it down.

"The (U.S.) Supreme Court will almost certainly intervene," Mystal predicts. "And, just to be plain about it, the conservative-controlled Court will almost certainly rule that Trump is allowed on the Colorado ballot. It would be wrong for anybody to get their hopes up: Republican-appointed justices are incredibly unlikely to kick the presumptive Republican nominee off of a presidential ballot."

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Mystal continues, "But the Colorado opinion is designed, at least, to make the (U.S.) Supreme Court look very ugly and partisan when it bends over backward to save Trump and preserve his ability to threaten the country. That's because the Colorado opinion is grounded in two things the Republicans on the Court claim to hold dear: textualism and states' rights."

Mystal stresses that "for true textualists," the "text of Section 3 couldn't be more clear" in what it says about insurrection.

"It says what it says: Government officers who engage in insurrection cannot be officers of the government again," the progressive legal analyst argues. "Donald Trump engaged in insurrection. That's not me saying it, or Jack Smith saying it; that's what the first court to hear this case, the Colorado state court, ruled at trial a few weeks ago…. If the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes and overrules Colorado, not only will it be going against the plain text of the 14th Amendment; it will also be trampling over Colorado's right to interpret its own state laws."

READ MORE: George Conway tears apart 'logically weak' dissents in Colorado Supreme Court’s Trump ruling

Elie Mystal's full article for The Nation is available at this link.