Supreme Court: Trump Stays on the Ballot
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Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
To the Editor:
Re “States Must Keep Trump on Ballot, Justices Rule 9-0” (front page, March 5):
Despite the stunning clarity of the 14th Amendment and the well-documented historical record of its intent, the votes of the three Trump-appointed justices and that of Justice Clarence Thomas to allow an insurrectionist to remain on the ballot were a foregone conclusion.
The only surprise was the unanimous vote.
Daniel Fink
Beverly Hills, Calif.
To the Editor:
The Supreme Court has decided that an individual state cannot decide who can be on the ballot for a federal election. That would seem to be a reasonable decision, but perhaps a more significant question is whether individual states may adopt their own criteria for who can vote in federal elections.
Selective restrictions have already been enacted in many states that will certainly affect the upcoming election. How can this patchwork system be permitted in light of this decision?
John T. Dillon
West Caldwell, N.J.
To the Editor:
The Supreme Court’s decision to allow Donald Trump to remain on the ballot in Colorado relied in significant part on the potential for hypothetical chaos if each state could make its own determination about the eligibility of a presidential candidate. In doing so, it ignored the real chaos that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, the same chaos that led the Colorado Supreme Court to order Mr. Trump excluded from the ballot because of his role in the events of that day.
Unlike the members of the court, the rest of us don’t live in a hypothetical world. The court’s decision made our world a little less safe from those who are willing to use violence to take or stay in power — actual violence, the kind that gets people hurt or killed.
Mitchell Turker
Portland, Ore.
To the Editor:
The holding by the Supreme Court that Congress and not the states has the power to keep a candidate for federal office off the ballot, and that power can only be exercised pursuant to legislation enacted by Congress, means that, as the law now stands, the only remedy barring an oath-breaking insurrectionist from running for president again is impeachment followed by conviction by a two-thirds vote of the Senate.
