Four of the nine justices - its three liberal members and its newest member - disagreed with the rest of the court about decision, saying the outcome powered by five conservative justices went further than necessary.

It ruled that barring state enforcement avoids a “patchwork” of candidates being declared ineligible in some states but not others. On that point all the justices agreed.

But liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, as well as conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, in separate opinions faulted the other five justices for going further to specify that Section 3 can be enforced only through federal legislation. Given the profound partisan divisions in Congress, any such legislation is highly unlikely.

(George Mason University constitutional law professor) Ilya Somin said he was disappointed the justices did not delve into tricky questions that the Colorado Supreme Court tackled, including its conclusion that the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack was an insurrection and that Trump took part.

  • billbasher@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    SCOTUS has no more legitimacy. Full stop. They are declaring the constitution unconstitutional. The 14th amendment exists for a reason. A jury found Trump liable for insurrection. They are upending a jury’s decision as well as violating a constitutional provision

    • Omega@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Generally when a lower court makes a questionable ruling, a higher court goes on to validate the legitimacy. What I don’t get about this whole process, is that logically a higher court should look at this case and determine if it holds true that Trump should be excluded across the US or not. Regardless of which way they decide.

      The constitution doesn’t say you’re allowed to bar them if they’re an insurrectionist. It says you MUST. SCOTUS should be ruling on whether Trump is an insurrectionist and if Colorado was fair in their proceedings.

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    It’s the modus operandi of the Roberts Court. Citizens United was originally about airing a political documentary too close to an election, until the conservative majority went above and beyond to basically make spending money a form of protected speech.

    The Colorado case was just about a state court taking someone off a ballot, and the conservative majority went above and beyond to neuter a constitutional amendment.

  • morphballganon@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    any such legislation is highly unlikely

    I think that point is outside the scope of the law, and thus, should not be a consideration. That said, I believe a state should be able to bar a candidate from running on a state ballot, even if it is for a federal office. If Turnip Dump is the best the republicans have to offer, there should be consequences for that.

    • FenrirIII@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      The problem with this is that we know Republicans will abuse this to cheat. They would bar Biden in every state they can for imaginary crimes and there would be no countering it.

      • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        If a court finds that Biden has participated in an insurrection I’d be totally fine with him being removed from the ballot. Just like Trump should be. The GOP will cheat regardless of what Democrats do. There’s no point in driving policy based on what the GOP might do, they aren’t acting in good faith EVER and have no interest in a functional government. The only counter for this is removing them from office. We need to stack every possible advantage in our favor to make that happen.

        • ironhydroxide
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          9 months ago

          No need for stacking in favor. There is need for the system to be run honestly and fairly.

          But to the retardlicans, a fair election is stacked against them.

      • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Exactly. It is critical to consider any power and what happens when that power falls into the hands of your most hated opponent. Anything that gives the government more power or restricts the rights of the people should be highly questioned.

        • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Anything that gives the government more power or restricts the rights of the people should be highly questioned.

          🥇 Lemmy Gold award

  • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Reagan killed any chance for this nation to right itself as a representative democracy, to thunderous Republican and Neoliberal applause.

    This is just left over momentum. It’s a shame the oppressed people, some whom will soon be murdered by fascists, will still spend whatever time they have left be it years or decades, screeching about how we can fix this system while maintaining the current economy and power structures. Sorry cousin, doesn’t work that way.

    We can revolt and tear down this fully captured economic prison, suffer a lot of pain rebuilding, and eventually have hope for a better future if we succeed, or we can suffer under this prison until it collapses under it’s own weight, damage done, and start rebuilding then with nothing, even the hopeful energy/momentum of purposeful revolution.

    But I know how chickenshit and social opiate addicted we are, so we will wait for collapse and blame everything except our former nation’s core values of greed, selfishness, schadenfreude, and sociopathy as we rebuild something with the same horrible values, but this time with a far more hostile planet so even more torturous results.

      • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I promise you that isn’t the case. I’m not a fan of my species anymore, and have come to understand we have no interest in an equitable world that prioritizes human happiness, so I’m just here to watch and comment on the necrotic freakshow without hope or agenda, merely for entertainment.

        Humanity largely doesn’t deserve nice things, which sucks for the relative few innately kind, empathetic among us, but I have no power to help them, and most of my species would try to stop me if I did, probably to save the beloved economy or some similar drivel.

        • thantik@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Finally someone who gets it. It’s not that we don’t want these things, it’s just that we’re powerless to enact change. Even violence doesn’t solve anything - because the one thing we have that might be able to enact some change, usually just ends up pushing more totalitarian regimes because then they can use ‘violence’ as an excuse to remove even more rights.

          Short of everyone refusing to do anything starting tomorrow morning, until proper teeth are sunk into the corporate elite, then nothing will happen.

          And don’t get me started about “start at the local level!” – I have worked hard at the local level to stop changes I see happening, had hundreds of people show up to voice their concerns only to have shit constantly go ahead anyways because of county commissioners, etc.

          The system is corrupt. Necrotic. It is rotten to the core.

        • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I’m just here to watch and comment on the necrotic freakshow without hope or agenda, merely for entertainment.

          So are you not interested in prioritizing human happiness, or are you interested yet refuse to do so?

          • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I’m just a cynic who absolutely would, but understands that humans en masse are far more interested in getting mooaar than their fellow humans, and largely need humans to look down on to feel content, that what we want is incompatible with who and what we are, using all of human history, right into last century’s most prominent genocide victims deciding genocide looks like fun and they’ll have a go, as evidence.

            I want humanity to get it’s head out of its ass so that we can all maximize being a little happy instead of a relative view being gluttonously happy at the expense of most’s misery, but I recognize that I might as well want humans to be able to flap their arms and magically start flying like birds, it’s just as pointless and impossible, both are beyond our capacity.

            • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              I’m just a cynic who absolutely would, but…

              I want humanity to get it’s head out of its ass so that we can all maximize being a little happy instead of a relative [few] being gluttonously happy at the expense of most’s misery, but…

              It couldn’t hurt to try. You have the will to do so.

  • Greyghoster@aussie.zone
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    9 months ago

    Insurrection affects people at all levels of civic life including those who want to be dog catchers. Does this ruling make Congress the arbiter of all these assessments or merely the president?