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After Trump wins at the Supreme Court, some warn it may be harder for Congress to boot 'oathbreaking insurrectionists
WASHINGTON — In ruling that states cannot kick Donald Trump off the ballot, the Supreme Court placed significant limits on any effort — including by Congress — to prevent the former president from returning to office.
Should Trump win the presidential election and lawmakers then seek to not certify the results and prevent him from taking office because he "engaged in insurrection" under Section 3 of the Constitution's 14th Amendment, the decision could foreclose that action.
It is on that point that the court — notionally unanimous in ruling for Trump despite its 6-3 conservative majority — appeared to be divided, with the three liberal justices vehemently objecting to the apparent straitjacket the decision enforced on Congress.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative, wrote her own opinion saying she also believed the court had decided issues it did not need to resolve, but she did not join the liberal justices’ separate opinion.
Apparently, without the support of the four female justices, a five-justice majority said Congress had to act in specific ways to enforce Section 3.
“This gives the Supreme Court major power to second guess any congressional decision over enforcement of Section 3,” Rick Hasen, an election law expert at UCLA School of Law, wrote immediately after the ruling