When the Supreme Court ruled yesterday in Trump v. Anderson that Donald Trump could remain on the Colorado Republican primary ballot, what the court didn’t say spoke even louder than what it did say.
The court did not say that what happened Jan. 6, 2021, wasn’t an insurrection, and the court did not say that Trump didn’t engage in it—in fact, three justices called Trump an “oath-breaking insurrectionist.” The court didn’t even say that Trump was not disqualified—merely that states may not enforce Section 3 disqualification against federal candidates. In restoring Trump to the ballot, the Court had an opportunity to absolve Trump of insurrection, but the fact that not a single justice was willing to do so speaks volumes about the depth of his betrayal of the Constitution and his office on Jan. 6. So where does that leave the country?
Absent action from Congress—an undeniably tall order—the question of Trump’s political future sits with the American people. Donald Trump is an oath-breaking insurrectionist. The Supreme Court has failed to vindicate him, as he asked them to do. Should he return to the White House, we can all assume how he’ll view the Constitution. He already told us in one of his 2022 delusional proclamations on Truth Social alleging a massive electoral fraud and calling for “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles even those found in the Constitution.” The United States Constitution is apparently just another nuisance to Donald Trump, getting in the way of his lust to occupy the White House once again.
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A casual glance at coverage about this case may understandably lead voters to assume that Trump was exonerated from wrongdoing. That is not what happened. What did happen was a five-day trial in Colorado, with numerous witnesses, hours of video and hundreds of pages of evidence, after which the trial court judge found that Trump engaged in insurrection. The Colorado Supreme Court upheld that finding in ruling that Trump was barred from the ballot, and today the Supreme Court did not address either of those court’s findings. This was no exoneration for Trump.
Trump violated his oath when he sought to overturn the 2020 election and assembled and incited a violent mob to attack the Capitol in service of his effort to remain in power. He engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, a fact which has been validated by every court and decision-maker that has considered the facts and the evidence. The Court’s decision did not change that.
The Court showed a distinct lack of courage to do the right thing by inventing a way to allow Trump to remain on the ballot without disputing the facts that show he engaged in insurrection and is thus disqualified. The American people must make their voices heard to protect our democracy from an insurrectionist—because the Supreme Court failed to rise to the moment. What comes next is on all of us.
Marc Racicot is a former governor and attorney general of the state of Montana. He also served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee as well as the chairman of the Bush/ Cheney Reelection Campaign.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.