- A faith restoring decision. Ever since the Colorado Supreme Court made the outrageous decision to unconstitutionally rule that former President Donald Trump was an “insurrectionist” and remove him from the ballot – one thing was clear. The decision by that court wouldn’t stand. As I mentioned at the time: It was outrageous when the Colorado Supreme Court ruled, without due process, that Donald Trump was guilty of insurrection – a crime which, despite four pending criminal cases against him, and with a total of 91 outstating charges against him, Donald Trump’s not even alleged to have engaged in. There is nothing more anti-American or anti-Democratic than a court finding a person guilty of something he’s never been charged with doing. It’s also outrageous that the Constitutional Amendment cited by the Colorado Supreme Court to attempt to justify their anti-American, and anti-Democratic decision, quite literally doesn’t allow for any other body outside of Congress, through the impeachment process, to do such a thing. It’s that much more outrageous that Donald Trump was tried under the impeachment process for insurrection, as is constitutionally prescribed, and was acquitted. The Supreme Court’s decision yesterday overturning the decision by the Colorado Supreme Court, captured that perspective. In the ruling it was stated: Our Constitution leaves some questions to the States while committing others to the Federal Government. Federalism principles embedded in that constitutional structure decide this case. States cannot use their control over the ballot to “undermine the National Government.” In other words, not only was the Colorado Supreme Court’s opinion overturned, but in the ruling, it was determined that it was unconstitutional for the state, and any state to even take up such a case. The federal system is the system that’s constitutionally tasked with deciding who is and isn’t guilty of insurrection – not a state. The wide-reaching ruling ensures not only that former President Donald Trump will remain on state ballots in Colorado, Illinois and Maine (the other states attempting to remove Trump from the ballot), but that...
- He’ll appear on all 50 state ballots in November should he be the Republican nominee for President as is most likely. But just as important as the ruling by the Supreme Court, was that it was a unanimous ruling. As I mentioned on February 9th after the US Supreme Court’s hearing on the case: Throughout the line of questioning, I had the feeling that Justices Jackson, Kagan and Sotomayor were seeking to arrive at a consensus opinion. And this is important. As polarized and politicized as this country already is, in this ruling, it’s important that the ruling isn’t perceived to be a political one. And it wasn’t. It was unanimous – which made for a faith restoring decision. This country will crumble if the constitution is eroded through judicial activism. It’s extremely encouraging that on an issue so foundational to our country’s representative republic – who's allowed to be on ballots for voters to be able to vote on – our country’s constitution was upheld by all nine justices. That’s a faith restoring decision at a critical time in our country’s history. As Trump said immediately after the decision dropped...BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!! He’s right. It was. Now, what the ballot decision doesn’t mean is that Donald Trump will necessarily win on future decisions in unrelated cases before the court – which currently includes the immunity case. It’s all but certain that Trump won’t win unanimously on that legal challenge. As I’ve stated right along – I’ve expected him to win on the ballot question but to ultimately lose on the presidential immunity challenge...though simply having the Supreme Court take up the challenge can be perceived as a win of sorts as it ensures the two Jack Smith Federal cases pending against Trump can’t start until after a ruling is in. This means it’s increasingly unlikely that either case will be brought to completion prior to Election Day.
- It’s Super Tuesday. The biggest day of the presidential nomination season is here as 15 states and 865 pledged delegates are on the line for the Republican presidential candidates today. What we won’t have, no matter what happens today, is a candidate who’s officially clinched the Republican nomination for president. For example, even if Donald Trump were to win every available delegate today, he’d still be just short of the magic number. But what is possible is the nomination contest being effectively over with only the signing of the fat lady left to go. That means today is the day that the perfectly fit lady in the Republican nomination race Nikki Haley, must make her mark in a big way or, she’ll be effectively forced to accept her fate in this race. She’s consistently said she’d remain in this race through at least Super Tuesday, she’s not previously promised to be running after it. Haley’s win in D.C. on Sunday was desperately needed to retain credibly in the race, though after last night’s defeat in North Dakota, she’s yet to prove she can win a state in this race. There’s no indication that she ever will. Polling in the Super Tuesday states is rather light – meaning there’s not much data in advance of actual votes being counted to attempt to draw many meaningful deductions, but from what we do have and what we have seen, all points in one direction. A big night for the former and perhaps future President of the United States. Haley hasn’t posted a lead in even one poll in any of the Super Tuesday states. Her closest contest, based on available polling, appears to be in Virginia – where Trump is shown with a high-single digit lead heading into today. Given northern Virginia’s proximity to D.C., where Haley won, this seems to make sense. But Haley needs to do more than lose well in select states today, she must pull out unexpected wins to have any realistic chance of winning the nomination after today.