Trump could inflict even more damage on the Supreme Court’s battered reputation: ex-Clinton adviser

26 December 2023

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined special counsel Jack Smith's request for an expediated review of former President Donald Trump's claim that he enjoys "immunity" from prosecution in Smith's election interference case.

That means that for now, the matter remains in the lower federal courts. Judge Tanya Chutkan has flat-out rejected Trump's "immunity" argument, ruling that presidents do not enjoy a "divine right of kings" in the United States. But Trump and his legal team have appealed Chutkan's decision.

A combination of legal experts, reporters and political pundits have been saying that despite the High Court declining Smith's request, it won't be able to stay out of the 2024 presidential election altogether. And Sidney Blumenthal, author of a series of books on President Abraham Lincoln and a former adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, fears that the Court's election-related decisions in 2024 will further damage its already-battered reputation.

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Another major Trump-related case involves the Colorado Supreme Court, which has ruled that Trump, according to the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, is disqualified from the state's GOP primary ballot.

In an op-ed published by The Guardian on December 26, Blumenthal warns that Trump's 2024 campaign "now poses an existential threat to the legitimacy of the Court's conservative majority."

"If ever there is a legal ruling of ironclad constitutional reasoning that can be defended on originalist and textual grounds," Blumenthal argues, "it is in Anderson v Griswold — the decision issued last week by the Colorado Supreme Court. The decision holds that Trump engaged in insurrection on 6 January 2021, and that he is therefore barred for running for president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment."

Blumenthal continues, "Trump's appeal to the Supreme Court creates a crisis for the entire conservative methodology. If the Court denies certiorari, declining to rule on the case, or upholds the Colorado decision, Trump would face disqualification cases in states across the country, throwing the election into chaos…. The conundrum for the Court is that it can rescue Trump only by shredding originalism and textualism."

Blumenthal warns that the High Court may rule, in effect, that Trump is exempt from the rule of law.

"If the Court grants Trump a reign of impunity as well as total immunity for his past actions," Blumental explains, "it will also be opening the gate for his stated intention to abrogate the Constitution to establish a dictatorship in the future. Section 3, established as the 'self-defense' of the republic for the future, will be rendered meaningless."

Sidney Blumenthal's full op-ed for The Guardian is available at this link.

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