SCOTUS indicated 'chaos would ensue' if states could disqualify candidates like Trump: West Virginia AG
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A West Virginia official whose office filed amicus curiae in support of former President Trump's successful bid to reverse his ballot disqualifications by state-level bureaucrats said the Supreme Court rightly understood "chaos" would occur if presidential qualification wasn't purely a federal concern.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican who is seeking to replace term-limited Gov. Jim Justice this year, told Fox News the fact the court's liberal wing joined the unanimous ruling in Trump's favor showed the issue transcends partisanship.
"I think if you heard the Supreme Court argument, you got a sense that even some of the more liberal leaning judges were going to be sympathetic to Trump's argument because they were asking about what might happen," Morrisey said Monday on "The Story."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"And I think all of the justices concluded that chaos would ensue if you could allow individual states to step up and rule that someone is disqualified, that that would be the worst form of election interference."
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Morrisey, who was joined in amicus curiae by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, as well as 20 other states' officials, said the presidency is also a unique, nationwide office, and one where the qualifications for which should not be subject to the whim of individual, "unelected" secretaries of state.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"All along we had believed that the actions of the states to disqualify President Trump from the ballot would always be found invalid, because this was essentially a federal decision. We know that the states have been trying to put out some extra criteria that's not included under the Constitution that's not part of the categorical criteria," Morrisey said.
He underlined, however, there are longstanding valid and statutory exclusions for high office based on age, naturalization status and tenure.
But, in order for someone like Trump to be disqualified from office based on an issue like Section III of the Fourteenth Amendment – the proverbial insurrection clause – that is a federal concern and one that would require the candidate to actually be charged with and convicted of the traitorous felony.
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Morrisey suggested that in order for the Fourteenth Amendment to come into play, Congress would have had to be the disqualifying force, not a state court or bureaucrat.
Trump defeated Biden by nearly 40 points in West Virginia in 2020, and trounced Hillary Clinton by slightly more in 2016 after she pledged during a town hall that "we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}When Morrisey adjoined West Virginia in the suit last month, he said every state in America would be impacted by Colorado's – and later Maine and Illinois – decision to nix Trump from their states' ballots.
He said West Virginia voters' four electoral votes would be "diluted" by others' "arbitrary… decisions."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I’ve had a lot of people that are very happy we’re out front leading this issue with Indiana," he told Morgantown's WAJR radio at the time.
Meanwhile, Trump himself spoke out following Monday's ruling, predicting the unanimous verdict would be a "unifying factor" as "most states were thrilled to have me" and the ones that did not acted "for political reasons."
He suggested some blue states are alarmed by multiple polls showing him leading President Biden.