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Former federal prosecutor and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said on Friday that it would be "inconceivable" for the Supreme Court to allow former President Donald Trump back in the White House amid efforts to remove him from state ballots.
Trump is currently the leading candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination by a wide margin as he seeks to retake the White House from President Joe Biden. In hypothetical general election polling match-ups, Trump and Biden are largely neck-and-neck, with some polls giving the former president the edge and some showing a lead for the incumbent.
While Trump is the overwhelming 2024 favorite among Republican voters, he recently faced a major setback for his candidacy after the Colorado Supreme Court and Maine's secretary of state recently ruled that he was ineligible to appear on the ballot in either state. Both decisions cited Trump's alleged hand in fomenting the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the 14th Amendment, which includes a clause that bars anyone who participates in an insurrection against the U.S. government from holding elected office. Though the decisions are now expected to face appeals and relitigation, they represent a major step forward in efforts to disqualify Trump from office.
The former president has maintained that he did not engage in an insurrection during the Capitol riot, while some of his GOP supporters have downplayed the severity of the event and cast doubt on it being an attempted insurrection.
Shortly after the ruling, the Colorado Republican Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate Trump, arguing in a 34-page petition that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment does not apply to the office of the president. The state GOP also argued that the clause is not self-executing, meaning that only Congress can enforce it.
In response to the appeal, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW)—a legal watchdog group who filed the original lawsuit seeking to block Trump—also petitioned the Supreme Court to provide an expedited review of the Colorado ruling, arguing that the case should be settled before primary voting begins in January.
On Friday, Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent Trump critic, touched on the recent ballot removal decisions in a YouTube video, calling the disqualification clause of the 14th Amendment "53 simple, straightforward, unmistakable words" that should make it "inconceivable" for Trump to be allowed to run for president again.
"I want to say it's 'almost' inconceivable, but you know what, I'm going to drop the 'almost': it is inconceivable that the United States Supreme Court would rule that someone who holds the office of the presidency, who then engaged in insurrection, should be permitted to hold the office of the presidency again," Kirschner said. "That would violate those 53 clear, unmistakable words in the 14th Amendment...and it would certainly violate the spirit of the 14th Amendment, Section 3."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's office via email for comment.
Legal challenges to Trump's place on the ballot have long cited the 14th Amendment's Section 3, though until recently, they have largely proven unsuccessful. Efforts in states like Michigan, Minnesota, Florida, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire have, so far, been dismissed, while decisions are pending in states like New York, New Jersey, Texas, and others.
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About the writer
Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more