Trump’s Supreme Court Blunderbuss

Donald Trump is well on his way to becoming history’s greatest litigation loser ever. But in the multifront war of Trump v. Seemingly Everyone Else, he has just prevailed in one small skirmish: The Battle of the Questions Presented.

Late Friday afternoon, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to review the Supreme Court of Colorado’s decision that held Trump ineligible to serve again as president under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, the provision barring insurrectionists from public office. That came as no surprise.

The nation’s high court also ordered an unusually fast schedule, with oral argument to be held in 34 days—on February 8. That, too, came as no surprise. All parties to the case agreed that the Court should hear the case, and do so expeditiously, so that states and voters could know before the presidential-primary season ends whether Trump was eligible for office.

What unusual was the Court’s choice to grant review without