A constitutional slippery slope

Monroe /
| 03 Jan 2024 | 11:58

    A recent submission suggests that the court ruling in Colorado which would keep Donald Trump off that state’s presidential primary ballot was constitutional. The author went through great pains, citing not only the presidential oath of office, but also Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, to explain the legal proceedings as well as the potential ramifications of what will happen if overturned.

    While I’m not a constitutional expert, but this is not only an obvious political effort to remove the leading presidential candidate from the ballot, it is an attempt to marginalize his “deplorable” supporters as well, and by doing so it undermines the same constitution the justices took an oath to uphold. Now if it stands as is, this attempt to exclude a legitimate presidential candidate will not end well for our nation, because the next reasonable step could easily be an attempt to remove the current president from the ballot for an insurrection as well, let’s use the invasion at the border for example.

    Now some will argue that Mr. Biden’s open border policy, where thousands, if not millions — many of them military-aged men — of illegal immigrants have crossed our borders, is not the same as the events of January 6th, but if we apply the same doctrine as the author suggests is implied in the 14th Amendment, of res ipsa loquitur, “the thing speaks for itself,” then others could argue that this invasion is Joe Biden’s “insurrection.” Do you see the slippery constitutional slope we place ourselves on by taking this path? It is quite obvious then, in spite of all the false fearmongering presented to us by the author, that if Donald Trump is kept off any state ballot come next November in this manner that it will no doubt be the death knell of our great republic.

    Tom Lapolla

    Monroe