Donald Trump must be defeated by the American people at the ballot box

Editorial: The case against the former president has yet to be proven in court – and efforts by state officials to block his candidacy are not only counterproductive, they may also prove incendiary. Let him run

Legal cases fuel a media circus to the detriment of wider political debate (AP)

The decision by Shenna Bellows, secretary of state of Maine, to rule Donald Trump ineligible as a presidential candidate was a mistake. That her decision was followed in a few hours by a contrary decision by Shirley Weber, secretary of state of California, confirms how mistaken it was.

Two officials, the most senior responsible for elections in their states, reaching opposite conclusions on the same facts suggests that the case against Mr Trump is far from watertight.

On principle, if there is any reasonable doubt about Mr Trump’s eligibility, he should be allowed to stand. In a democracy, it is for the people to decide who is and who is not a suitable person to hold office.

But there is an equally strong argument that, in practice, the attempts to block Mr Trump’s candidacy only help him. By allowing him to pose as a martyr, by feeding him lines about how the establishment is against him, and how his opponents are using legal technicalities to try to fix the contest, those trying to put procedural obstacles in his path only strengthen him.

In practice, all of the attempts to keep Mr Trump’s name off the ballot in any state are going to end up in the US Supreme Court. Colorado Republicans have already set the wheels in motion of an appeal against the ruling by that state’s Supreme Court which removed him from the 2024 ballot in Colorado.

That appeal will no doubt be joined by legal action contesting Ms Bellows’s decision in Maine and appeals against similar decisions and court rulings in other states. The legal caravan will trundle on alongside the election campaign, with Mr Trump drawing more and more strength from each successive headline.

As the circus reaches its likely conclusion – in Mr Trump’s favour – Joe Biden will find his space to set out his case is squeezed by the Trump ego, and the media’s obsession not just with Mr Trump but with legal process, at the expense of political substance.

There are two reasons for thinking that the Supreme Court will eventually find for Mr Trump. One is that the court has a conservative majority (Mr Trump appointed three of the nine justices, and three others were appointed by fellow Republicans, Georges Bush Sr and Jr). The other is that Mr Trump has not yet been found guilty by any lower court of insurrection, treason or indeed any other crime for his part in inciting the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021.

It is The Independent’s view that his conduct at that time ought to disqualify Mr Trump from taking part in democratic elections, but that has not been established by the American judicial system.

Furthermore, the US constitution is wildly unclear about what anti-democratic behaviour would disqualify a presidential candidate. It is even possible that the constitution as interpreted by this Supreme Court would allow Mr Trump to run for president from jail if he were convicted of offences relating to 6 January.

It is, therefore, no use Ms Bellows or the Colorado supreme court merely asserting that Mr Trump may not be a candidate. All that does is play into Mr Trump’s pantomime of martyrdom – and it is almost certain to be overturned by the federal Supreme Court.

Better to let Mr Trump run, give Mr Biden space to make his case, and trust the American people to make the right decision.