Former President Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution for actions he took as president will not be fast-tracked by the U.S. Supreme Court, the court said Dec. 22.
During my professional career, I’ve said it countless times and in countless ways: perception is reality. Oh, I wish I could take those moments back! Not just because of my awful tendency to weave profanity into my version of the cliche, but because the cliche itself has engulfed far too many of us.
In 2024, the battle between what is real and what is not will be epic.
Yes, yes, it’s a big election year, the latest in a streak of the-most-important-elections-of-our-lifetimes. And nothing strains the perception and reality continuum more than election season. This year, that is practically the entire game.
Let’s talk about the pesky 14th Amendment and other inconvenient laws that will impact the presidential race. The never-ending legal saga of former President Donald Trump is ground zero of the perception-versus-reality war. His most recent problem of being removed from the ballot in Colorado and Maine has inspired debate and conversation that is straight out of “The Twilight Zone”.
Too many politicians from both parties are pandering to voters by taking the position that Trump’s quest to return to the White House should be decided solely by the election. Of course, we all agree with the authority of elections, even though Trump and his supporters didn’t agree with it in 2020. Many of them still don’t. But before voters get to decide in any year, candidates must be qualified to hold the office.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution establishes the qualifications to be president. We learned about these in elementary school: the person must by a natural born citizen, at least 35 years of age, and must have lived in the country for the previous 14 years.
The 14th Amendment, enacted after the Civil War, modified those qualifications to prevent those responsible for such a rebellion from infiltrating public office in the newly restored union. The plain, applicable language of Section 3 states: “No person shall … hold any office … (having) engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
The language is plain. It’s inconvenient for this moment, but it’s still plain and applicable. And the reality is that it is a legal matter, not a political one. There is no value for politicians to proclaim, “let the voters decide!” The Constitution is not set aside by the whims of the moment. It never has been before, and there is no reason to do it now.
To Trump and his fans, good luck at the Supreme Court in January.
The question of presidential immunity for Trump’s acts related to the insurrection will likely be decided this month too. The reality here is that more than 700 people have been convicted of crimes related to Jan. 6, 2020. There is a truckload of evidence implicating Trump’s criminal role in it. Too many Americans think this is also something to be decided by public sentiment. Nope. Not in the moment it’s not. The political process can lead to new laws in the future, but we don’t vote on the applicability of laws as they exist now, or in the past.
Neither of these issues will be decided by public commentary or creative social media posts. They will be decided in court, as they should be, even though the legal questions really aren’t that complicated.
For SCOTUS to interpret that the 14th Amendment’s insurrection language doesn’t apply to Trump, it will have to strain a little. They could decide a conviction is necessary, or that he wasn’t technically “an officer” of the government when he was president. But it will require a decision that abandons the virtues of “textualism” this court holds so dear.
On the question of presidential immunity, SCOTUS will need to do far more than strain to rule in Trump’s favor. It will have to create a fantasy land. As much as this court has rattled my faith in it with its recent decisions, this just won’t happen. Trump will go to trial in all of his criminal cases. It’s also a fantasy to believe he will escape being convicted in all four cases.
This unprecedented legal saga will end badly for Trump in 2024, not because people of my ilk are rooting for it, but because the criminality and the law are both so clear. There isn’t a reality-based escape route for him.
America is either a nation of laws or it isn’t. It’s often inconvenient and imperfect, but our laws have served us better than any one person ever could. That’s reality.
The perception of many is that Trump is something other than the obvious. When reality ultimately prevails, I hope we will all be prepared for it.
Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com. This commentary was previously published at indianacapitalchronicle.com. Send comments to [email protected].