SCOTUS rules states cannot ban Trump from ballot for insurrection – National & International News – MON 4Mar2024

SCOTUS rules states cannot ban Trump from ballot for insurrection.

Israel/Palestine: White House pressures Hamas to accept temporary “ceasefire”.

NATIONAL NEWS

SCOTUS rules states cannot ban Trump from ballot for insurrection

Ahead of tomorrow’s “Super Tuesday” primaries, the Supreme Court has ruled that individual states cannot ban Donald Trump from state ballots on 14th Amendment grounds. In the last few months, watchdog groups and voters in several states, including Colorado from which this case came, mounted efforts to have Trump barred from their state’s ballots for his role in the Jan. 6 2021 assault on Congress. They argued that this constituted an act of insurrection, which, under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, disqualifies a person from holding office. Courts and attorneys general in several states agreed, setting up a Supreme Court fight.

While the Justices were unanimous in striking down Colorado’s decision to bar Trump from the ballot, there was some dissent among the Justices about the scope of the ruling. The conservative majority ruled that only Congress can bar a candidate from holding national office on 14th Amendment grounds.

The court’s three liberal Justices took issue with this in a concurring opinion. The liberals agreed that allowing individual states to bar Presidential candidates would create, “chaotic state-by-state patchwork at odds with our Nation’s federalism principle”. However, they argued that the majority went too far in limiting what governmental bodies had the authority to bar candidates from national office and how they should do it. 

“The majority announces that a disqualification for insurrection can occur only when Congress enacts a particular kind of legislation pursuant to Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the three liberal justice wrote. “In doing so, the majority shuts the door on other potential means of federal enforcement. 

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Israel/Palestine: White House pressures Hamas to accept temporary “ceasefire”

Last week, Israeli army shot and killed over 100 starving unarmed Palestinian civilians trying to get food from a humanitarian convoy in Northern Gaza. The incident has since been dubbed “The Flour Massacre”. Following this atrocity, and the high number of “uncommitted” protest votes in the Michigan primary, the Biden administration has made a show of calling for more aid and a cessation of hostilities.

Over the weekend, the US carried out a highly-publicized air drop of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Now the US is calling on Hamas to accept a ceasefire proposal that would see most of the remaining Israeli hostages released in exchange for several hundred Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel. However, the term “ceasefire” is deceptive in this case. This would not be a permanent ceasefire. Rather it would be a 6-week break in the fighting, after which Israel will resume its military assault on Gaza.

One may argue that any deal that provides a respite from the killing and may at least somewhat increase aid getting into the Strip is a deal worth taking. However, one would have to weigh how worthwhile it is to seize on a respite which permits Israel to resume its campaign in Gaza in 6 weeks time, presumably with even greater force and fewer eyeballs on the region to scrutinize its actions. In 6 weeks, little will have changed for the people of Gaza. There will still be no adequate shelter, nowhere to escape the fighting and killing, and no end to it in sight.

After six relatively quiet weeks, there will be fewer eyeballs on the region to scrutinize Israel’s actions in Gaza. If the goal is to end the conflict and embark on a peaceful settlement, the Biden administration could, and should, instead put the onus on Israel to accept the permanent ceasefire Hamas has proposed. By instead pressuring Hamas to accept a temporary ceasefire, the Biden administration is co-signing whatever the IDF does when the 6 weeks have elapsed.

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