Aziz Huq Writes About the Supreme Court Ruling on the Trump Ballot Case
The Supreme Court’s Confused Ruling on the Trump Ballot Case
The Supreme Court showed it can act with speed by allowing Trump to continue his presidential campaign and punching down states’ ability to disqualify insurrectionist candidates. Indeed, the Court showed it could do so even on hard constitutional questions. Its decision, however, only exacerbates questions about the Court’s reasons for acting—questions that will deepen doubts about the Justices’ even-handedness and freedom from partisan tugs.
Doubts are sewn both by the timing and the content of the recent decision on disqualification. The Court added a date to its ordinary calendar just for the purpose of issuing this opinion, plainly heeding Trump’s demands for resolution before Super Tuesday. It also issued a short (for the Justices) unsigned opinion that bespeaks a rapid work-effort.
But while it heeded Trump’s demands for speedy resolution on the disqualification question, the Court has repeatedly declined to expedite Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request for prompt resolution of the question whether Trump is immune from criminal prosecution. That question is, in truth, much easier to resolve than the disqualification question (in brief, no). Yet the Court has dragged its heels in ways that enable Trump’s efforts to delay the criminal justice system’s operation—perhaps right up to or beyond the election.
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