The increasing number of indictments against Donald Trump are disrupting normal politics and will continue to shape political arguments against a Trump restoration. The recent Georgia indictment, along with the argument from conservative legal scholars about the 14th Amendment’s application to Trump, highlights the mutually influential relationship between legal challenges and democratic politics. As legal proceedings affect the political landscape, the judicial system itself becomes politicized, undermining its claim to impartiality. Regardless of the legal merits of the Trump indictments, trying a man who is viewed as a potential future president by a significant portion of the population is inherently political. Furthermore, when the crimes being prosecuted are closely tied to the political process, as in the most recent indictments, the proceedings become even more political. The prosecutions aim to show that no one, not even a president, is above the law. However, if Trump becomes the Republican nominee, the judicial process could end up being overshadowed by the political landscape, as millions of Americans can essentially disregard the court’s findings by voting him back into the White House. This would demonstrate that political power trumps legal rulings and highlight the supremacy of politics over mere law. Despite this, some still argue in favor of prosecuting Trump as a strategic measure to establish a political taboo against his post-election behavior. However, it’s concerning that not enough people understand the risks involved in such proceedings and believe that legal action alone can reshape political reality. Analyses of the argument claiming that the 14th Amendment disqualifies Trump from the presidency highlight its implausibility. According to these analyses, the amendment’s provisions should only apply to large-scale insurrections, military rebellions, or explicit civil wars, rather than to political protests-turned-riots. The interpretation that the amendment’s provisions are self-executing and can be immediately applied to Trump or any alleged insurrectionist is also challenged. Historically, this interpretation was rejected by Chief Justice Salmon Chase in 1869, shortly after the amendment’s ratification. Even if the authors’ arguments were considered correct, their prescription would be politically disastrous and self-defeating. It is unreasonable to expect state officials, especially those from opposing political parties, to unilaterally exclude a demagogic populist from their ballots based on their private judgments of crimes for which he has not been successfully prosecuted. Such actions would lead to political chaos and serve no good purpose. The irony lies in the fact that a similar legal mentality influenced Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 election results. John Eastman’s argument that Mike Pence could intervene and disregard the official election results was unfounded, but the idea of imposing a particular interpretation of the Constitution without considering the political consequences was similar. The outcome of the Pence maneuver would have likely resulted in a swift rejection from the courts or the vice president standing alone against both houses of the legislature. Regardless of any academic debate, the political implications of the maneuver would have remained unchanged. It is clear that when legal theory intersects with politics in this manner, it inevitably fails to address the realities of the political realm.
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