By Raul Labrador
This last week has seen troubling news coming from states across the country. Left-leaning courts and bureaucrats have taken it upon themselves to remove former President Trump from state presidential ballots. These are desperate attempts to prevent his election and suppress the voice of citizens to vote for their candidate of choice.
It started with Colorado’s Supreme Court issuing a 4-3 decision to prevent Trump’s name from appearing on their presidential ballot, ostensibly for violating the Insurrection Clause in the 14th Amendment. Just yesterday, Maine’s Democrat Secretary of State unilaterally removed Trump from the Maine presidential ballot. And last week, the Michigan Supreme Court magnanimously said they would “allow” Trump to be on the Michigan presidential ballot. Yes, “allow.” They gave their permission.
The actions of these state courts and bureaucrats should be concerning to everyone. Whether or not you support former President Trump, he has never been charged with, nor convicted of insurrection. The proceedings in Colorado and now Maine did not provide him with the due process guaranteed by (ironically) the same 14th Amendment. This decision will no doubt be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, and I look forward to joining other Attorneys General in opposing the Colorado decision.
Since these shocking decisions, my office has been flooded with calls from angry citizens, urging me to retaliate by pushing for a removal of President Biden from Idaho’s presidential ballot. I understand that anger and I am dismayed at how the laws of our Republic to protect the rights and voice of the individual are in jeopardy. But two wrongs do not make a right. That would be a violation of due process for President Biden, no different than it is for former President Trump. We cannot allow personal biases to corrupt the law, even in circumstances of real or apparent injustice.
It is almost impossible to be a student of the law without being a student of history. The last time states kept a candidate off the presidential ballot was 163 years ago. Ten out of 11 Southern Democrat states kept Abraham Lincoln off their presidential ballots in 1860 in a desperate attempt to prevent his election and his promises to curtail slavery. Those same states would secede from the Union a few months later after Lincoln’s election, triggering the American Civil War.
The actions of today’s liberal courts and bureaucrats seem no less desperate. In fact, these actions are an odd step to take by a group of people who claim President Trump is a threat to Democracy. We must all stand together, regardless of party or ideology, against forces that wish to divide our country, our people, and our states. Hopefully, we will all remember our past instead of being condemned to repeat it.