Supreme Court Judges See Dangers To Democracy Of Election Ban On Trump

The US supreme court appeared sceptical of a Colorado decision removing Donald Trump from the state's primary ballot during nearly two hours of oral arguments last night, seemingly poised to rule Trump is not constitutionally disqualified from running for president.

- Sam Levine

The case is perhaps the most high-stakes legal dispute to arrive at the court this century and thrusts the court to the centre of a politically charged election. A majority of justices, including some from the court's liberal wing, voiced concern about the chaos that would ensue if they allowed states to decide whether to disqualify candidates from the ballot.

"What do you do with the, what would seem to be, the big plain consequences of your position? If Colorado's position is upheld, surely there will be disqualification proceedings on the other side and some of those will succeed," the chief justice, John Roberts, asked Jason Murray, the lawyer who argued on behalf of the Colorado voters.

"I would expect that a goodly number of states will say whoever the Democratic candidate is, you're off the ballot, and others, for the Republican candidate, you're off the ballot. It will come down to just a handful of states that are going to decide the presidential election. That's a pretty daunting consequence," Roberts added.

Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, two of the court's liberal justices, echoed Roberts' line of questioning. While the constitution granted states an enormous amount of power, Kagan said to Murray, there were some national questions. "What's a state doing deciding who other citizens get to vote for, for president?" she said.