States’ election laws also limit voters’ choices. Maine disqualified Chris Christie from its GOP primary because his campaign collected fewer signatures than the state’s law requires.
The 14th Amendment provision that has so far kept Trump off the ballots in Colorado and Maine is another eligibility requirement, and an exceedingly important one. It helps preserve the rule of law by preventing traitors from using the powers of high office to destroy the country.
Millions of voters support Trump. But so what? If widespread support provides no basis for ignoring the 22nd Amendment in favor of Obama or Article II’s native birth requirement in favor of Schwarzenegger or Granholm, how can it be a reason for ignoring the 14th Amendment in favor of Trump? We should be more concerned about preventing traitors from becoming president than worrying about third-termers or naturalized citizens who never sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
Trump isn’t special. He must meet the same eligibility requirements as all other candidates. If he can’t because he fomented an insurrection—as in my opinion and that of the Colorado Supreme Court, he clearly did—then to uphold the Constitution he must be excluded from the ballot.
Commentators, including some who agree that Trump fomented an insurrection, nevertheless argue the U.S. Supreme Court should let him run to avoid a repeat of Bush v. Gore, the lawsuit in which the Court decided the 2000 election. But failing to enforce the Constitution would send the terrible message that threats of violence work. The country owes an enormous debt to the many lower court jurists who honored their oaths to the Constitution despite Trump supporters’ vicious attempts at intimidation. The Supreme Court should show as much courage.
Moreover, the contrast with Bush v. Gore – a case that critics see as a purely partisan decision by Republican appointees to hand the 2000 presidential election to the Republican – could hardly be starker. A decision affirming the Colorado Supreme Court would have to be bipartisan because, to uphold Trump’s disqualification, at least two Republican-appointed justices will have to cross party lines.