Supreme court to issue decisions with Trump ballot eligibility case pending – live

If the supreme court rules on Donald Trump’s ballot eligibility this morning, do not be surprised if they issue an unanimous, or near-unanimous, ruling allowing him to remain on ballots. Six conservative justices, three of whom Trump appointed, outnumber the three liberals, but just about all of the justices sounded skeptical of the Colorado supreme court’s ruling barring Trump from the state’s primary ballot over his participation in January 6, which was the issue at hand when the judges heard the case last month.

What’s less clear is if the court’s decision will only affect Colorado, or be written to decide the issue nationwide. From February, here’s the Guardian’s Sam Levine with a rundown of how the justices appeared to be leaning:

The US supreme court appeared skeptical of a Colorado decision removing Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot during nearly two hours of oral arguments on Thursday. It seems poised to rule Trump is not constitutionally disqualified from running for president.

The case is perhaps the most high-stakes legal dispute to arrive at the court this century and thrusts the court to the center of a politically charged election. A majority of justices, including some from the court’s liberal wing, voiced concern about the chaos that would ensue if they allowed states to decide whether to disqualify candidates from the ballot.

“What do you do with the, what would seem to be, the big, plain consequences of your position? If Colorado’s position is upheld, surely there will be disqualification proceedings on the other side and some of those will succeed,” the chief justice, John Roberts, asked Jason Murray, the lawyer who argued on behalf of the Colorado voters.

“I would expect that a goodly number of states will say whoever the Democratic candidate is, you’re off the ballot, and others, for the Republican candidate, you’re off the ballot. It will come down to just a handful of states that are going to decide the presidential election. That’s a pretty daunting consequence,” Roberts added.