A group of experts who spoke with Politico expressed fear that the Supreme Court's decision on whether former President Donald Trump should remain on the ballot will inspire more political violence.
Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the publication that she didn't expect the kind of mass violence seen at the January 6th Capitol riots, but she said that we should expect isolated violence to erupt across the country.
"Violence is likely no matter what happens," she argued. "If the Supreme Court doesn’t disqualify Trump and he continues his campaign, his speech and campaign style will probably generate so many violent incidents... Should Trump lose the election, his disbelieving supporters are likely to engage in major violence. While Trump’s ability to draw out large crowds now has been dented by fear of false flags, DOJ’s beheading of the Oath Keepers and other factors, his capacity will likely return after months of campaigning."
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Richard L. Hasen, a professor of law and political science at UCLA, expressed a similar fear.
"My greatest concern of a ruling disqualifying is not therefore about a hit to the court’s legitimacy, but the potential for violence... especially given Trump’s track record in encouraging violence when he doesn’t get his way, which is what got us to this point in the first place," he said.
And Aziz Huq, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said that barring Trump from the ballot was the right decision legally, but he said that the consequences of such a decision would likely be horrific.
"I suspect that a Supreme Court ruling disqualifying him from office would elevate the violent rhetoric and acts of some," he warned. "A win for the Colorado plaintiffs, in other words, would not be the end; it could instead be the beginning of a further bloody unraveling of democratic norms."
