Day by day, week by week, courts are increasingly becoming the front line in the struggle to preserve democracy from populists and authoritarians.
In the United States, the Supreme Court just heard and rejected oral arguments on a decision by Colorado’s highest court that Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the state’s presidential ballot, owing to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. And an appellate court ruled against Trump’s claim that presidents enjoy immunity for any action taken while in office, a case which is now to go before the Supreme Court.
Moreover, a state court in New York has just imposed a $354 million penalty on Trump for financial fraud. That comes on top of $83 million awarded by the jury in a case where Trump was accused of defaming a woman who had successfully sued him for sexual assault. In addition to barring him from holding any senior role in a New York-based company for the next three years, these two rulings will likely strip Trump of almost all his available cash holdings.