If the conservative justices actually believe in originalism, they must disqualify Trump | The Hill

Luttig writes, Trump s brief misplaces reliance on the use of Officers of the United States in three clauses of the Constitution as ratified in 1788. Luttig argues that the total answer is found in an article titled What Scalia Thought About Whether Presidents Are Officers of the United States. He plainly thought they were.

Justice Thomas s favorite amendment to the Constitution is the Second Amendment, enshrining the right of the people to keep and bear arms. He views the provision as an unqualified command. Thomas went with Scalia in holding that having a gun was a personal right, not one that existed only in the context of a well regulated Militia. Luttig played to Thomas s sweet spot, quoting Scalia s words in the 2008 Heller decision that it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct and thus concluding that it is not the role of this Court to render Section 3 extinct.

Then there is the issue of whether the states can exclude Trump from the ballot now or whether we all are to wait until he is possibly elected and about to take office before he can be disqualified. Too bad for Trump that Justice Neil Gorsuch went the other way on this in a case when he was an appellate judge. He held in 2012 that a state s legitimate interest in protecting the integrity and practical functioning of the political process permits it to exclude from the ballot candidates who are constitutionally prohibited from assuming office.

I always thought it a longshot that the Supreme Court would disqualify Trump. But, after reading Judge Luttig s brief, I believe that this conservative court will decide the Constitution requires Trump s disqualification.

via thehill.com

James Zirin.