U.S. Supreme Court likely to make quick decision on Trump

Questions from members of the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday seemed to suggest the majority won't boot former President Donald Trump from Colorado's November ballot or allow other Democratic-leaning states such as New Mexico to do so.

David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said he believes the justices will base their decision on whether one state can disqualify a candidate seeking national office.

"There seemed to be a lot of concern that this could lead to either chaos, with a lot of different decisions coming from states, or whether this would mean that one state could effectively decide this very important issue for all of the states," he said, "and it seemed like, to some degree, all nine justices had some concern about that."

The Colorado Supreme Court earlier ruled that Trump should be prevented from returning to the White House because he participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the nation's Capitol. The Supreme Court, which has a solid 6-3 conservative majority, heard arguments for about two hours on Thursday.

Formal challenges to Trump's presidential candidacy have been filed in at least 35 states, but they will likely remain on hold, since Becker expects the Supreme Court to issue a ruling soon - perhaps as early as next week and not later than the end of the month.

"I think the Supreme Court took this case on an accelerated schedule clearly with an eye towards clarifying this issue from a federal, constitutional perspective as quickly as possible," he said.

Earlier this week, in a separate lawsuit against Trump, a federal appeals court ruled he is not immune from prosecution for trying to overturn the 2020 election. Trump lawyers also are expected to appeal that decision to the high court.

Support for this reporting was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Source: New Mexico News Connection