Effort to keep Trump off ballots to be resolved before GOP convention: legal scholar
Official White House photo by Andrea Hanks.

Legal scholar Lawrence Tribe predicted that efforts to keep Donald Trump from holding public office again under the 14th Amendment will go to the Supreme Court before Republicans hold their convention next summer.

Tribe discussed the prospects for invoking the 14th Amendment Friday during an appearance on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” after a liberal group earlier in the week filed a lawsuit that would bar Trump from appearing on the ballot in Colorado on Constitutional grounds.

Tribe co-authored an article in the Atlantic with fellow legal scholar Michael Luttig that has fueled momentum for barring the former president from holding office under the 14th Amendment, which limits insurrectionists from holding office.

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The 2024 Republican National Convention is scheduled to be held July 15-18 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

Tribe appeared to catch Cooper off guard after the host said “so this is not something you think that would end up in the Supreme Court?”

“It will end up there because when the ruling is finally made against the (former) president as it could well be, then the (former) president would certainly have standing to seek review," Tribe said.
"One way or another whether from Colorado, which is the strongest of these suits so far, or from some other state, it will reach the Supreme Court, it'll really have no choice but to decide, and that really is the main point that Judge Luttig and I and some others have been making, and that is, clearly the plain language of the 14th Amendment applies here, because it says that anybody who takes an oath to uphold the Constitution, and then basically turns against the Constitution and tries to overturn it, in an insurrection or by giving aid and comfort, can't hold office again.”
Tribe noted that this isn’t the only disqualification, citing rules excluding former presidents from seeking a third term.

“They can't run for another reason, they've already won twice,” Tribe said.

“This guy perhaps is disqualified under this provision. Either way, when there is a constitutional disqualification, it's irresponsible to say, ‘well, it's politically unrealistic to exclude someone so popular."

"Politics is not the end of the game. The Constitution means something, it has to be taken seriously.”

Tribe added that the Supreme Court might not agree, noting it “might ultimately say ‘yes, the Constitution must be taken seriously, but it doesn't apply here.’ We'll have to wait and see.”

Asked Cooper: “How long a process for it ultimately to get to the Supreme Court…?"

”I think it could get there before the Republican convention, because I think it's extremely important that the Supreme Court will recognize it's extremely important that it be resolved in connection with the primaries."

“It really would be a constitutional mess for the nominee of one of the major parties to be excluded from the ballot. If he’s going to be excluded, he needs to be excluded before the Republican Convention takes a nominee. And I think that's why this case is going to move really, very speedily to the US Supreme Court.”

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