The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up former President Donald Trump’s challenge to the Colorado Supreme Court ruling trying to kick him off the ballot — but what will likely be a huge win for actual democracy will be exploited by the left.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked a panelist Friday if the high court could “recover from the perception of being politically biased,” pointing out Justice Clarence Thomas’ refusal to recuse himself from the case. Thomas has faced calls for recusal since his wife, Ginny, texted then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about alleged fraud in the 2020 election.
But Tapper’s question hits at something deeper, and something the nation has been battling for the better part of six years: a so-called illegitimate Supreme Court.
Late Chief Justice Robert Jackson once said: “We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.”
The decisions of the high court can fundamentally alter the conduct of the nation unless changed by a new challenge. Each decision holds the weight of the constitutional republic delicately in its hands. A unanimous ruling reaffirms resolutely the bedrock principles of the nation and Constitution.
Recently, however, decisions split down partisan lines have led some on the Left to declare the high court — and some of its justices — devoid of legitimacy.
Others have gone so far as to threaten the court.
“Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be ‘restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.’ Particularly on the urgent issue of gun control, a nation desperately needs it to heal,” Democrats filed in an amicus brief back in 2019 over a Second Amendment case.
Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused several justices of “destroying the legitimacy of the court” when they overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the issue of abortion back to the states, also known as sending it back into the hands of the people directly.
But that is why the decision in Trump v. Anderson is of utmost importance and could have a catastrophic affect.
If the Supreme Court does not rule unanimously that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is not self-executing, therefore invalidating Colorado’s ruling — but nonetheless rules in Trump’s favor — the Left will exploit the victory to push their court-packing agenda.
They will try to convince young voters who spend too much time watching Biden surrogates shake their behind on TikTok the Supreme Court’s decision is purely politically motivated and an affront to the Constitution. They will strip the court of its once respected position in American society down to nothing more than an institution infiltrated by partisan political hacks. They’ll blame Thomas, like they’ve been for years, for not recusing himself.
They’ll ignore the fact Colorado’s Supreme Court said it would immediately place Trump on the ballot should he appeal because they too anticipate a challenge, perhaps knowing their reasoning rests on faulty assumptions, as other states have ruled.
And like clockwork, there will be renewed calls to pack the bench, done with an appetite only satiated by success — “success” being intentionally appointing justices who have displayed a pattern of partisan decisions and party sympathies toward the left.
Alexander Hamilton once said “the general liberty of the people can never be endangered by” the judicial branch, for it is the weakest by design.
Hamilton surely never anticipated the judicial branch would become a contentious point of debate for those who seek to use its force to push a political agenda that oftentimes is an affront to liberty.
So while a ruling reversing the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision would be a major win not only for Trump and his supporters, but the separation of powers, it will undoubtedly be capitalized on by the left.
If the Supreme Court rules in Trump’s favor, he has the opportunity to be beat at the polls. Consequently, the court’s decision won’t be seen as being based in merit, reason or the Constitution itself (I’m looking at you, Section 5 of the 14th Amendment). Instead, it will be delegitimized as a partisan ruling and therefore a potential Trump win will be called illegitimate as well.
Then again, they told us it was an illegitimate win in 2016 so hey, nothing new.