Pablo PardoWashington Correspondent

Washington Correspondent

Updated Thursday, February 8, 2024-21:12

  • Polls Donald Trump returns to the race for the White House more "angry" and "committed" than ever

  • Justice The Colorado Supreme Court rules that Trump cannot run for office in that state

For the first time in the history of the United States, the Supreme Court of that country has begun the process to decide whether a candidate can run for office. This is former President Donald Trump, who the Colorado State Supreme Court has prohibited from appearing on the ballots for the

November 5 elections

in which the next president of the country will be voted.

Colorado's decision is based on the third clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits "the holding of any public office" by persons who, having sworn to defend the Constitution, "have been involved

in a rebellion or insurrection

" . For Colorado's highest court, Trump's actions on January 6, 2021 constitute an insurrection.

That day, the then president, at a rally held in the city of Washington, urged his followers to

storm the Capitol

to prevent the ratification of

Joe Biden

's electoral victory in the elections. Once the attack occurred, it took Trump more than three hours to call law enforcement to remove the assailants. The state of

Maine

has also prohibited Trump's participation in the elections, but in that case it is not a decision of the judges, but of the territory's Secretary of State, so it is suspended until the Supreme Court issues a ruling, which which could happen in a few weeks.

Judging by this Thursday's session, in which both parties have presented their arguments, Trump could run in the elections. It's not been a surprise. The six Republican judges on the Court - three of them nominated by Trump himself - have made it clear that they do not sympathize with Colorado's theses. More surprising has been the attitude of the three Democratic judges, who have also shown their coldness towards the position of that state, with the exception of

Sonia Sotomayor

. In any case, judging by the tone of the session, the ruling will be clearly favorable to Trump. It is even possible that no justices will vote in favor of Colorado. The former president and now candidate, who was asked by his lawyers not to be present at the Supreme Court session so as not to further inflame tempers, given his tendency to mess up every time he goes to trial, continues to insist that the Colorado decision It is motivated by

political reasons

.

The key issue is the eternal debate between the power of the states and that of the federal State. As Democratic Justice

Elena Kagan

told the attorney representing the state of Colorado,

Jason Murray

, "the question that needs to be confronted is why a single state could decide who is president of the United States." That implies that it is a federal issue, not a state one. It is somewhat contradictory, given that in the US there are not truly national elections, but rather

50 elections in each state

, with their own rules and regulations, which are then added to determine the winner of the elections.

Ultimately, the US Supreme Court seems determined to evade the issue in a similar way to what its counterpart in El Salvador did to allow Nayib Bukele to run for re-election: by resorting to semantics. The fourteenth amendment establishes that Congress must regulate its provisions. So the judges are going to say that it is the responsibility of the Legislature, not theirs, and that if in the almost century and a half that has passed since the approval of the norm until now, Congress has not prepared a single law in this regard, no It's your problem.

Other points of contention have been whether Trump promoted an insurrection or not. There the whole case has a certain grotesque tone, since

Ginni Thomas

, the wife of one of the most conservative judges, Clarence Thomas, collaborated with Trump in his attempts to falsify the election results and also chartered buses to take to supporters of the former president to the rally that culminated in the assault on the Capitol. The United States Supreme Court does not have an ethical code and, therefore, Thomas

has not recused himself from the case

, so he is a judge - when he is in his official duties - and a party - at the time he arrives at home-.