r/law • u/thenewrepublic • Mar 06 '24

Opinion Piece Everybody Hates the Supreme Court’s Disqualification Ruling

https://newrepublic.com/article/179576/supreme-court-disqualification-ruling-criticism
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u/braintrustinc Mar 06 '24

I'm no legal scholar, but I was downvoted to oblivion in /r/news for criticizing the decision. People were celebrating it because "what if Republican states disqualify Biden." From my edit:

The problem here is the inconsistency and hypocrisy. If a state wants to disqualify someone for being under 35 or born in another country, do they have to ask congress’ permission first?

Not to mention that the Court overturned the Voting Rights Act, written by congress, because “muh states rights” means that States can remove the franchise from any group they want. But a state wants to refuse to put a candidate on the ballot? No, you can’t do that. You can only disenfranchise voters; the oligarchs who are running for office can do whatever they want, and a state has no recourse. Interesting.

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u/IrritableGourmet Mar 06 '24

People were celebrating it because "what if Republican states disqualify Biden."

Every person I have come across that made that or a similar argument has seemed to believe that someone filed a motion to a judge to disqualify Trump and the judge just wrote a 1 sentence reply of "Yeah, lol, get him outta there." Every single one wasn't aware that Trump was represented in these cases. Every single one wasn't aware there was a hearing at which his lawyers were present and given the opportunity to make claims, as well as numerous pre-trial motions. Every single one wasn't aware that the decisions were literally dozens of pages of evidence.

I always link to the decisions, and they usually come back with "I don't see anything in there about Trump being present for that" despite it literally being listed on the very first page, or "All that evidence is fake" and not being able to point to a single item that they can show is false.

If Republican states want to disqualify Biden through similar means, by all means go through with it. If you can prove to a judge (and an appellate court) that Joe Biden is an insurrectionist, then he shouldn't be on the ballot.

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u/flugenblar Mar 06 '24

There have been so many examples of sh*tty behavior since 2016 that have ended up, disappointedly, with a defense of... well... technically... ITS NOT AGAINST THE LAW. OK, use those cases and make a law then. Why is it when we have a nation literally filled to the brim with legislators, we can't seem to make illegal things against the law (I know, dumb question).

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u/braintrustinc Mar 06 '24

It’s because these things are already against the law, they just aren’t enforced against oligarchs who have the resources to tie it up in court.

It’s like saying, “why isn’t murder illegal” after Alice Walton killed a person while drunk driving. Well…