Keith Olbermann called for the Supreme Court to be dissolved and took aim at the court’s Democratic-appointed justices Monday, after a unanimous ruling kept former President Trump on the presidential primary ballot.
“The Supreme Court has betrayed democracy. Its members including Jackson, Kagan and Sotomayor have proved themselves inept at reading comprehension,” he said, referring to Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that Colorado cannot disqualify former President Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection ban, giving Trump a monumental legal victory on the eve of Super Tuesday, when he is poised to close in on clinching the Republican nomination.
Voters and advocacy groups across the country had filed dozens of challenges to Trump’s ballot eligibility, claiming his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack necessitated his disqualification.
The high court, however, sided with Trump, effectively ending the long-shot efforts to use the Reconstruction-era provision of the 14th Amendment to block the former president from returning to the White House.
The Supreme Court also ruled Congress has exclusive authority to enforce the 14th Amendment to disqualify federal candidates. Trump-appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberal justices in criticizing that decision.
“Collectively the ‘court’ has shown itself to be corrupt and illegitimate. It must be dissolved,” Olbermann continued.
The Supreme Court is poised to play a big role in the 2024 presidential election, even beyond Monday’s ruling on Trump’s ballot eligibility.
In April, the justices will hear Trump’s arguments that he has presidential immunity from the criminal charges accusing him of conspiring to subvert the 2020 election results, a case that will impact the future of three of Trump’s four indictments. He has pleaded not guilty to all 91 charges.