Six SCOTUS justices will perform 'intellectual gymnastics' in Trump hearing: correspondent

Six Supreme Court justices will be contorting their arguments like Olympic gymnasts when they convene on Thursday, The Nation's legal correspondent Elie Mystal predicted this week during an appearance on CNN's "Newsnight" with Abby Phillip.

"What we'll see tomorrow... is a level of intellectual gymnastics from the Conservatives that I swear, Simone Biles will copy in Paris this summer," he explained. 'That's how much twisting and turning they're going to have to do to keep Trump on the ballot."

Tomorrow's special session will have the Supreme Court hear oral arguments in order to determine if former President Donald Trump should be disqualified to appear on the GOP presidential primary ballot.

The case against Trump is based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment that bars officeholders who “engaged in insurrection” from pursuing elected office.

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The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump should be booted from the GOP primary ballot, where he remains the frontrunner ahead of former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, because of his efforts to flip his 2020 election loss to then candidate Joe Biden and fomenting a massive crowd of supporters descending in D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, to attend the "Stop the Steal" rally that exploded into an attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Mystal believes that the Court should be true to the "original meaning" of the 14th Amendment "when it was written". And he believes if they do, then Trump is deemed an insurrectionist and "ineligible for the ballot."

"If the Republicans were honest with their own philosophy, they will kick Trump off the ballot," he said.

Instead, Mystal suspects while there may be some circus legal knots that are displayed, nobody will likely break from their respective political tribes.

"What I think will happen, what I think should happen, are two different things," he explained. "What I think will happen is the Republican justices, all six of them, will defend their boy and keep Trump on the ballot. But that's going to require them to abandon their own principles."

Watch the video below or at this link.