Monumental Ruling Puts Supreme Court in Hot Seat

The bombshell decision of the Colorado Supreme Court to keep Donald Trump off the 2024 presidential ballot in that state now shifts attention to the US Supreme Court, where an appeal is expected to land quickly. The Colorado court ruled 4-3 that Trump engaged in insurrection and is therefore barred from seeking reelection under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. (Read more about the rationale of using the clause against Trump.) Still, the gist of early coverage is that the Supreme Court is likely to reverse the lower court's decision. Coverage:

• High court: "I think that we should first of all reject the idea that it's a predictable 6-3 ruling," Adam Liptak of the New York Times tells the Daily podcast, referring to the court's conservative-liberal split. The big question is whether voters should decide on Trump's conduct after the 2020 election or whether the court should "take that question out of the voters' hands," he says. Liptak is skeptical even the liberal justices will want to do that. In a similar vein: "The justices don't want it to look like they're taking this fundamental question away from the electorate," Loyola law professor Jessica Levinson tells the Wall Street Journal.
• Complicated: The Colorado court, as it itself acknowledged, ruled on multiple "novel legal issues," writes Rick Hasen at Election Law Blog. "Trump would need to prevail on only one of these legal issues to win on any appeal, so in some ways the legal odds are with him." The Journal lays out examples of those "novel" issues, including, "What does it mean to have been 'engaged in insurrection or rebellion?' Can Trump be disqualified as an insurrectionist when he hasn't been convicted of any such offense? And should it be up to state courts to decide on Trump's eligibility?" Former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb predicts a 9-0 ruling in Trump's favor, per the Hill.

• Too far? Jonathan Chait is a longtime critic of Trump, but at New York magazine, he makes the case that the Supreme Court should reverse the ruling and allow Trump on the ballot. The "conclusion that Trump's attempt to secure an unelected second term was 'insurrection' isn't solid enough to bear the weight of the outcome it supports." He predicts this particular push against Trump will "backfire," and the New York Times' Maggie Haberman told CNN Tuesday night that the Trump team sees the decision as a gift, per Mediaite.
• The impact: The Colorado ruling is nonetheless historic, writes Aaron Blake in the Washington Post, even if Colorado itself is a reliably blue state and thus not expected to have much effect on the 2024 results. (What's more, the ruling has been paused pending appeal, meaning Trump could wind up on the GOP primary ballot by default.) The true impact is more about precedent, writes Blake. It's "conceivable that Colorado becoming the first state to disqualify Trump could embolden other judges and states to go down a similar road, in a way that counts."
• Other states: Axios counts more than a dozen court cases pending across the nation on whether Trump should be disqualified from the ballot based on the 14th Amendment, including, notably, in the battleground state of Michigan.

(More Donald Trump 2024 stories.)