Chief Justice John Roberts. and his colleagues seemed ready on Thursday to start rebuilding the court’s reputation by presenting themselves as unified and apolitical. The court's approval ratings have dropped after the leak of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade, an inconclusive investigation into that breach, and ethics scandals followed by a toothless code meant to address them. Judging by the justices’ questions on Thursday over former President Trump's eligibility to hold office again, they will rule that Trump can remain on the primary ballot in Colorado and on other ballots around the nation — and by a lopsided, if not unanimous, vote.
If the chief justice’s project of evenhanded nonpartisanship is to prevail, the court will have to rule against Trump in a separate case heading to the court, the one in which he claims absolute immunity from prosecution for his conduct leading up to and on Jan. 6, 2021, the New York Times reports. Richard L. Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote in Slate that the outline of a “grand bargain” was coming into view. “The Supreme Court unanimously, or nearly so, holds that Colorado does not have the power to remove Donald Trump from the ballot, but in a separate case it rejects his immunity argument and makes Trump go on trial this spring or summer on federal election subversion charges,” he wrote.