This week we saw on full display why the American people have lost faith in our justice system.
On Thursday morning, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Colorado case where a few activist judges are trying to keep President Donald Trump off the ballot. I was proud to go to the Supreme Court on Thursday morning and show my support for President Donald Trump.
The case centers on a never-before-litigated provision in the Constitution—section three of the 14th Amendment—which prohibits people from holding elected office if they were previously an "officer of the United States" and were subsequently found guilty of insurrection.
There are several problems here. First, the 14th Amendment conspicuously omits the president, despite listing congressmen and senators and even vice presidents. Second, the president is not "an officer of the United States," but rather the individual in whom all executive authority is vested.
Democrats like to talk about "our democracy." But Democrats from Colorado to Maine are desperately trying to stop the American people from deciding who will be our next president, which cuts to the heart of democracy.
The Colorado case has no basis in law or in fact. Donald Trump has not been charged, never mind convicted, of an "insurrection," which has a very specific legal definition. The U.S. Senate specifically acquitted him of this charge in his second bogus impeachment trial.
This case should have been thrown out long ago. We shouldn't stop the American people from choosing the president because of a frivolous lawsuit.
This should not be a partisan issue—it's an American issue. If the Supreme Court somehow upholds the Colorado ruling, then the case would give a single state unilateral power over the other 49 states in deciding who can run for president. The result would be sheer chaos, as blue states and red states alike would kick their secretary of state's political opponents off their ballot.
Even some of the liberal members of the Supreme Court were extremely skeptical of Colorado's arguments in the case. Justice Elena Kagan said, "I think that the question that you have to confront is why a single state should decide who gets to be president of the United States." Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson raised textualist concerns that the 14th Amendment doesn't apply to a president. She said, "They were listing people that were barred and 'President' is not there." She was exactly right.
President Trump might well win this case nine to zero—and he should.
Just a few hours after the Supreme Court heard the case, Special Counsel Robert Hur released his report on President Biden's mishandling of classified materials. The report finds that President Biden "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials," which is a crime, and is also one of the charges that liberal prosecutors have made against President Trump. But just a few pages after citing this evidence of criminal wrongdoing, Special Counsel Hur declined to charge President Biden with a crime because "it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him...of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness." I'm sure plenty of criminals would like to avoid being charged just because they might find a sympathetic jury—but they aren't Democratic politicians.
Special Counsel Hur's report also presents damning evidence of President Biden not being mentally competent, citing his forgetting his time as vice president and even the timing of the death of his son Beau. These facts should alarm us. If President Biden isn't mentally capable enough to be guilty of a crime, then he isn't mentally capable enough to run the country.
The contrast couldn't be clearer, and it's no wonder the American people think our justice system has become political. On one hand, a blue state is trying to kick President Trump off the ballot for a crime of which he has never been charged, never mind convicted. Just hours later, President Biden's Justice Department announced evidence of a verifiable crime yet declined to prosecute him, not because he is innocent and not because it is a poor use of department resources, but because of his declining mental state. Americans should be outraged by both of these facts and especially by the blatant double standard they have exposed.
It now falls to the Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado ruling and lay down a clear precedent. The Court must do its job and uphold the original meaning of the Constitution. We must stop this attack on our democracy and let the American people decide this November.
Tommy Tuberville is the senior U.S. senator from Alabama.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Sen. Tuberville: Trump SCOTUS Case Is a Tale of Two Justice Systems
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14.02.2024
This week we saw on full display why the American people have lost faith in our justice system.
On Thursday morning, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Colorado case where a few activist judges are trying to keep President Donald Trump off the ballot. I was proud to go to the Supreme Court on Thursday morning and show my support for President Donald Trump.
The case centers on a never-before-litigated provision in the Constitution—section three of the 14th Amendment—which prohibits people from holding elected office if they were previously an "officer of the United States" and were subsequently found guilty of insurrection.
There are several problems here. First, the 14th Amendment conspicuously omits the president, despite listing congressmen and senators and even vice presidents. Second, the president is not "an officer of the United States," but rather the individual in whom all executive authority is vested.
Democrats like to talk about "our democracy." But Democrats from Colorado to Maine are desperately trying to stop the American people from deciding who will be our next president, which cuts to the heart of democracy.
The Colorado case has no basis in law or in fact. Donald........
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