Editorial: U.S. Supreme Court needs to act quickly, not delay, on Trump's ballot status
Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 -- The U.S. Supreme Court needs to do its job, to take up and resolve Donald Trump's claims of presidential immunity. Trump deserves to know his status as a candidate. More importantly, voters deserve to cast meaningful ballots and they MUST know Trump's status BEFORE they vote.
Posted — UpdatedIn the American democracy the judicial system provides a critical role – providing some certainty amid the shifting policy landscape arising from the popularly elected legislative and executive branches of government.
Questions arise about the constitutionality of the laws the legislative branch enacts or the legality of the way the executive branch implements those laws. It is left to the independent judiciary to examine, assess and determine if the laws meet their constitutional criteria.
Just as significant, the courts play a role in assuring the stability of the democracy avoiding opportunities for panic and crisis.
Presidential primary caucuses and elections start in less than three weeks. The North Carolina presidential primary is three months away. Yet, state courts and elections officials across the nation are wrestling with challenges to Trump’s qualifications to be on the ballot.
Further, Trump is facing state and federal charges related conduct of his businesses, false claims made in orchestrating and seeking to overturn his 2020 defeat.
The failure of the Supreme Court to accept this matter now only means that, regardless of the court’s ultimate decision when it does deal with it, one side or the other will find it too easy to claim that the courts acted on behalf of one campaign or the other. Trump will claim exoneration – which it won’t be regardless of how the court rules – or that it just adds more justification for his phony claims of stolen elections.
Trump’s strategy of using the courts to delay and defer has been a hallmark of his conduct as a business executive and as a public official. Courts cases that are decades old, throughout the nation, are evidence of his standard of operation.
It is time for the U.S. Supreme Court to do its job, to take up and resolve Trump’s claims of presidential immunity.
Trump deserves to know his status as a candidate.
But more importantly, voters deserve to cast meaningful ballots and they MUST know Trump’s status BEFORE they vote.
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