Trump heads to US Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Donald Trump will try to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court this week to reverse a judicial decision to kick him off the ballot in Colorado over his actions concerning the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, arguing that the constitutional provision his opponents cite does not apply to him as a former president.
It may not be the only time Trump makes this type of assertion to the justices. As he fights four criminal cases and civil litigation in lower courts, Trump has repeatedly advanced a bold argument: that he is formally immune or otherwise not subject to these legal challenges.
“Trump appears obsessed with trying to place himself above the law. The theme running throughout these claims is that he cannot be held liable at law for anything he has done,” said constitutional law expert Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor. “No president or former president has made such outlandish, self-serving claims.”
The Supreme Court, whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three Trump appointees, on Thursday is scheduled to hear Trump’s appeal of a ruling by Colorado’s top court that disqualified him from the state’s Republican primary ballot under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment for engaging in insurrection. He is the frontrunner for his party’s nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
While Trump has not asserted sweeping presidential immunity as a defense in that case, the Supreme Court still may have to confront the issue, including in criminal and civil actions over his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss and defamation claims by a woman who accused him of rape.
Trump in the past has shown contempt for constraints on his actions. He famously said during his successful 2016 presidential campaign that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”
In his effort to escape federal criminal charges involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden, a lawyer for Trump indicated to appellate judges that a president could order Navy commandos to assassinate a political rival and still be immune from prosecution unless first being impeached by the House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate.
Asked to comment on his immunity assertions, a Trump campaign spokesperson pointed to his Jan. 10 social media post stating that a president could not function without “COMPLETE IMMUNITY.” In a post nine days later, Trump said presidents need immunity even for “events that ‘cross the line.’”
The Supreme Court will confront novel questions when it reviews the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision that Trump is disqualified from the presidency under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars any “officer of the United States” who “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office. In that case, Trump contends that he is not subject to Section 3 because the president is not an “officer of the United States.”