Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy McCarthy issued an ominous warning about former President Donald Trump’s case in Colorado and Maine.
McCarthy warned the U.S. will turn into “complete chaos” ahead of the 2024 presidential election if the U.S. Supreme Court fails to deliberate on the cases in Colorado and Maine. The two states ruled to remove Trump from the primary ballot citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states no individual should hold office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
“Well, I think they have to take the case, Martha [MacCallum] and I say that understanding that they are very reluctant to wade into the politics of the 2024 election. But you will truly have chaos, and maybe two layers of chaos, if this case isn’t grappled with soon by the one court that can sort of put an end to all the questions,” McCarthy said during a Thursday segment on Fox News.
McCarthy said the Supreme Court needs to settle “two layers” of the issue to answer whether Trump can be removed from the ballot in the primary and general elections. (RELATED: Turley Gives Single Reason All 9 SCOTUS Justices Should Cut Down Trump Ballot Ruling Without Any Dissenters)
“If you have that, I think currently there are about 33 states where you can have some degree of litigation on this issue already. Multiply that by two if it really is going to be two layers and then you have fifty states making ad-hoc rules about which procedures have to be applied before someone can be found guilty or this disqualification can attach to them under the 14th Amendment. You are gonna have true chaos in the run-up to the election,” McCarthy warned.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision to disqualify Trump from the state primary ballot in a Dec. 19 decision. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows soon followed suit in a Dec. 28 decision, citing the 14th Amendment.
McCarthy said he is hopeful the Supreme Court will unanimously strike down the states’ decisions and anticipates some of the progressive justices to side with the conservative majority. He said the Supreme Court will not want to rule on whether Trump violated the 14th Amendment by engaging in an insurrection during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The former U.S. Attorney argued that neither Trump nor any of his associates have been charged or convicted of an insurrection related to the riot.
“So I think what the Supreme Court can say is there has to be a procedure where a court gets involved and a person accused of this gets due process,” McCarthy continued. “To my mind, it should be if you’re gonna accuse someone of insurrection, it should be a high level of due process, like guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, where you have all the protections of a criminal trial. But I could easily see the court doing that and then they don’t have to rule on the merits of whether there was an insurrection and all that stuff.”