Trump will stay on ballot, Supreme Court rules

After former President Donald Trump appealed his prosecution for election interference to the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices ruled unanimously on March 4 that Trump will remain on the ballot in Colorado, whose state supreme court had declared him ineligible.

Currently the former president is facing 91 criminal charges ahead of the 2024 election, which he currently leads the Republican primaries in. According to Project 538, a political polling organization, Trump leads in primary polling at 76.9% compared to South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is resting at 14.5%.

While Trump is currently polling ahead of Haley and locked in a tight race with President Joe Biden, the legal scrutiny he faces can still be damaging. While Trump’s immunity appeals will directly impact him, UCO professor of political science Loren Gatch believes it can also present problems for present and future presidents.

“In order for someone to function effectively as an executive, it may require that we grant them a certain amount of forbearance in office,” said Gatch. “I’m putting it in that general sense just to defend the idea of immunity.”

There is no immunity explicitly given to the president through the constitution as it stands, but Gatch argues that in order to understand the defense of immunity, it must be analyzed further.

“Are there certain kinds of activities that are not a part of the executive power that would make one liable?” asked Gatch in a restorative manner.

Taking it back to the Clinton Administration and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Gatch cites the incident as an example of a president committing an act outside of the executive power.

Trump has argued that his actions taken during the 2020 election were official acts, and that the absolute immunity afforded to presidents covers actions taken while in office.

While Trump remains on the ballot in all states, his troubles still are not yet over, with his legal team still pushing the U.S. Supreme Court to find protections from the charges that he attempted to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election.