‘It sounds awfully national to me’: Supreme Court appears poised to leave Donald Trump on Colorado ballot amid fight over Constitution’s insurrection clause

Left: President Donald Trump speaks during a rally protesting the electoral college certification of Joe Biden as President in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)/Center: This photo made available by the U.S. National Archives shows a portion of the first page of the United States Constitution. According to NPD BookScan, which tracks around 85 percent of the print market, more than 1 million copies of the Constitution in various editions were sold since Trump took office. The sales are especially notable because the Constitution can be read or downloaded for free, including from the U.S. government. (National Archives via AP)/The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington, D.C., Feb. 2, 2024. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)

Left: President Donald Trump speaks during a rally protesting the electoral college certification of Joe Biden as President in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)/Center: This photo made available by the U.S. National Archives shows a portion of the first page of the United States Constitution. (National Archives via AP)/The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington, D.C., Feb. 2, 2024. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)

It was an unprecedented day as the huge stakes case Trump v. Anderson hit the docket at the U.S. Supreme Court where justices heard arguments for roughly two hours on the question of whether former President Donald Trump is disqualified from Colorado’s presidential primary ballot in 2024 given allegations that he engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6.

The high court has never before weighed Section III of the Fourteenth Amendment, otherwise known as the “insurrection clause” and arguments were densely packed Thursday as justices jockeyed to grill an attorney for Trump, Jonathan Mitchell, as well as an attorney representing voters challenging Trump’s ballot eligibility, Jason Murray.

The court’s questions focused mostly on states’ rights versus the powers of the federal government and vice versa. There was a brief inquiry over what might constitute an insurrection but by and large the justices clung to procedural matters and the language of Section III, avoiding discussion almost entirely on the visceral events of Jan. 6 or Trump’s alleged role in them.

Instead, the court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, was focused on whether a national election could “come down to just a handful of states.”

“That’s a pretty daunting consequence,” Roberts said.

Justice Samuel Alito seemed inclined to agree with this position, telling the parties that it was a “misnomer” that Section III is considered a “self-executing” statute and that the consequences of one state determining a candidate’s eligibility could be “as some claim,” he said, “quite severe.”

Alito’s position wasn’t surprising given his conservative track record but he wasn’t alone; Justice Elena Kagan, considered a liberal presence on the bench, needled the voters’ attorney on Thursday.

If a single state could decide who gets to be president, she remarked, “it sounds awfully national to me.”

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