Thursday, the nine justices will hear a dispute that might affect the 2024 election: the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to remove Trump from the ballot citing the 14th Amendment's “insurrectionist” provision. The Supreme Court may also hear another Trump appeal against a lower court's denial of his request for total presidential immunity over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election based on fraudulent voter fraud accusations by early next week.
The two difficult issues may drag the justices farther into a presidential contest than since 2000, when they voted with then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush over Vice President Al Gore. The lawsuit that ended a turbulent post-election period 25 years ago may not affect its contemporary campaign dynamics. If Trump becomes the Republican candidate, the court may intervene in politics before or after November's election due to his reluctance to accept election outcomes.
Given centuries of delicate rulings on political subjects including slavery, voting rights, civil rights, desegregation, interracial and same-sex marriage, health care, and abortion, the assumption that the Supreme Court is beyond politics is outdated. No modern president has gone farther than Trump in challenging the idea that judges must uphold the rule of law above party considerations.
Four times criminally indicted Trump regularly leans on or discredits institutions that may hold him responsible, limit his authority, or contradict his constantly constructed alternate realities. He lures people into his wrath and lies, damaging their supposed superiority.
When he loses an election, he calls it rigged; when the press covers the truth, he calls it “fake news”; when he's investigated, he calls it a witch hunt; when indicted, he warns the grand jury is biased; and when he loses a case, he calls the judicial system crooked. The president's campaign is predicated on his belief that he is politically persecuted and wants to avenge that with a second term.
Former president slandered judges and courts in high-profile cases. Outside court, he blasted the judge, his staff, and the New York civil fraud case. Last month, Trump stormed out of a $83 million defamation case against E. Jean Carroll. The Washington, DC, appeals court dismissed Trump's false claims of absolute immunity for hurting the 2020 campaign on Thursday. Trump Jr. questioned judges' power. “No one who’s been watching is shocked by this partisan hackery but here we go,” he wrote on X. The Supreme Court should act.Previous Trump instances had gag orders to preserve proceedings.
Many Trump backers feel left down by the government or distrust institutions, authority figures, and experts. Trump's success in framing his legal troubles as a massive conspiracy plays into these views and undermines democratic institutions. Citizens lose trust in a biased legal system. Law enforcement's perceived overreach against Trump has only strengthened his followers' sympathies.
A Trump election lawsuit in a more polarized moment than 2000 may be worse, especially if the court rules against Trump. After Bush v. Gore, Gore respectfully conceded. Not prior president's morality. Former president Donald Trump criticized the supreme court. He also claims that Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett are disloyal because they don't follow him. Trump's transactionalism and ignorance of judges' legal duties are obvious.