In overturning the Colorado Supreme Court’s disqualification of Donald Trump from the ballot, the Supreme Court conveniently ducked its responsibility and covered Section 3 of the 14th Amendment in about six feet of concrete. Knowing that Congress will do nothing before the election if ever, the court held that the Section wasn’t “self-executing”—Congress would have to set up rules.
It is important to note that the court majority could have stopped on the point the full bench agreed on unanimously—that a state can’t enforce this provision against federal candidates. They also wisely ignored Trump’s absurd claims that the president is not “an officer of the United States” and doesn’t take an oath to “support” the Constitution. But then, the Court majority simply tossed the whole thing into the lap of a divided Congress, ensuring it will never apply to Donald Trump. This wasn’t necessary and it was gratifying to see that four justices—Sotomayor, Kagan, Barrett, and Jackson—objected to that portion of the ruling.
