The U.S. Supreme Court made it pretty clear at Thursday’s hearing on Colorado’s decision to kick Trump off the ballot that it is going to overturn that ruling.
The case is based in the Fourteenth Amendment, Section Three. If overturned, it means that the former president will appear on the ballot in all the states this November, assuming he is the Republican Party’s nominee.
As much as I detest Trump and everything he stands for, I think the court is going to make the right decision, because the Colorado move rested on a judgement that Trump was guilty of insurrection on January 6th, 2021.
Despite the act that I believe Trump was guilty of insurrection, he has not been convicted of the crime by any court of law. And under our system of justice that matters.
If and when he is convicted, I think the question being litigated in Colorado, Maine and elsewhere should be revisited.
Meanwhile, it was notable that during yesterday’s hearing that some of the justices seemed to cast doubt on what the word insurrection even means. This may foretell problems if and when other cases regarding Jan. 6th reach the court.
Next up in the ongoing set of legal dramas surrounding Trump is the question of whether he can claim immunity for his criminal actions while president.
I hope and believe the court will rule that no person, including Trump, is above the law. That question needs to be resolved as the constitutional crisis caused by this terrible man continues to roil the nation.
***
Soon after the oral arguments in the Colorado case concluded on Thursday, a bombshell report from the special prosecutor in the Biden classified documents case went public.
The good news is that legally, Biden will not be charged. He cooperated fully with the investigation and unlike Trump, who faces prosecution for mishandling classified documents, Biden didn’t try to obstruct the special prosecutor’s investigation.
But politically, this is disastrous for Biden. He is described as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” He also is described as having a “diminished capacity.”
It may take a while but I fear the age issue may seal Biden’s fate as a candidate. He may have to withdraw from running for re-election, thereby casting this year’s election into an even greater state of chaos.
It looks like we’re in for a very rough year.
HEADLINES:
The Supreme Court seems poised to reject efforts to kick Trump off the ballot over the Capitol riot (AP)
Special counsel will not charge Biden in classified documents case (WP)
Biden tries to lay to rest age concerns, but may have exacerbated them (CNN)
Senate votes to move ahead with foreign aid package that excludes border security (Guardian)
The GOP revolts as Congress fails to fix the border, fund allies and impeach Mayorkas (AP)
Putin walks away with propaganda victory after Tucker Carlson’s softball interview (CNN)
Zelensky fires Ukraine’s military chief in major shakeup nearly two years into war (CNN)
Putin's Tucker Carlson interview seems timed to inflict maximum damage on US support for Ukraine (Business Insider)
Congress' own economists said immigration is set to add $7 trillion to the U.S. economy over the next decade. Immigration may have already provided another benefit to the economy by helping it avoid a recession. [HuffPost]
Front-line Ukrainian infantry units report acute shortage of soldiers (WP)
New Report Raises Concerns About Long Covid in Children (NYT)
Scientists discover an alarming change in Antarctica’s past that could spell devastating future sea level rise (CNN)
The world experienced its hottest January, continuing a run of exceptional heat fueled by climate change, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service said. (Reuters)
The millennial women leading a new era of fashion journalism (WP)
Google rebrands its Bard AI chatbot as Gemini, which now has its own Android app (Engadget)
Google Deepmind proposes ‘self-discover’ framework for LLMs, improves GPT-4 performance (VentureBeat)
Neal Stephenson’s Most Stunning Prediction (Atlantic)
The FCC is outlawing AI-generated voices in robocalls as concerns grow around their ability to deceive voters (AP)
Nikki Haley Loses Nevada Primary To ‘I’m Trans And You Can Take My Guns’ Option (The Onion)
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