Former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano praised the U.S. Supreme Court for its ruling that put leftist states back in their place with the unanimous 14th Amendment ruling, telling Newsmax on Monday that the high court "saved democracy."
In its 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court told states that "the 14th Amendment is not available to you," Napolitano said on "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE."
However, Napolitano said Republicans cannot exact a pound of flesh for the courts and politicians who attempted to remove former President Donald Trump from three different state ballots because they all have immunity for official acts, regardless of how far-fetched they were.
"I am delighted that it was a unanimous decision, and I'm thrilled that it was an apolitical decision, a decision that Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson and everybody in between can agree with," Napolitano said.
"But the people that you want to see punished — you're not gonna like this word — have immunity," Napolitano told Higbie. "… The traffic court judge in Chicago that attempted to take Donald Trump off the ballot has immunity for her official acts; the secretary of state in Maine has immunity for her official acts.
"But we don't need to go there. Where we need to go in my view, most respectfully, Carl, is this: The Supreme Court saved democracy by saying to the states, 'You cannot take somebody off the ballot,'" Napolitano said. "You can take somebody off the ballot for state office. So if somebody participated in an insurrection and wants to run for governor of Colorado, or mayor of Boulder, the Colorado Supreme Court can take them out. But you cannot influence a national election for president. Only Congress can do so.
"Congress can't tell Colorado who can run for governor, Colorado can't tell Congress who can run for president. That's the plain meaning of this nine-to-nothing decision today," Napolitano added. "But Trump has every right to rejoice in this because it puts the power back in the hands of the people, not black-robed judges."
In response to the Supreme Court's decision, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Monday that he's working on legislation to remove Trump from ballots by one, declaring Jan. 6, 2021, an insurrection and two, asserting that Trump engaged in it.
"What Congressman Raskin is trying to do is really out of place at this time in this election year," Napolitano said.
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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