Thoughts about Trump & the SCOTUS ruling on his exclusion from the 2024 ballot
As expected, the SCOTUS ruled in favour of Trump (again), confirming that he is allowed to remain on the ballot & that Colorados move to exclude him was unconstitutional, despite the words in the constitution that bans insurrectionists from holding office.
Now, whilst this is on one hand galling, the fact is that I can’t muster up too much emotion about this as I’ve long expected that the role of the US Constitution (or for that matter any Constitution) is not “the law”, it’s “the framework that underpins the law”. Indeed, that’s the whole point of the Constitution - and why laws can be found to be unconstitutional & struck down.
The fact that Trump was not excluded from the ballot - an in a unanimous verdict no less - was more down to the fact that there was no law that could be used to exclude him, as Congress hasn’t passed any laws to that effect.
Put it another way, the US Constitution might say that something is criminal - but it’s the laws that Congress debates & passes that deals with the required evidentiary standards, judicial process and punishment of the crime. Absent that legal building, the Constitution is a poured framework upon which to support a legal structure - but the legal structure wasn’t (in this case) there.
No law = no crime = no punishment.
Morally, Trump is as guilty as hell - I hope that he spends the last few years of his life in jail from the other court cases - but I’m not going to lose any sleep when people complain that laws should be magicked into existence, when convenient for their side.
Congress didn’t do its job - and hasn't for over a hundred years. There was no federal law that stopped him. Ergo, Trump can’t be excluded for the very real, very obvious and very morally criminal acts he encouraged.
Ultimately I don’t want to live in a world where people can just magick laws into existence on a whim & convenient pretext - that way lies tyranny. I enclose a clip from 'A Man For All Seasons' which explains my view much more eloquently than I ever could. https://youtu.be/PDBiLT3LASk?si=sCkymBzHYIBXuWv_