SCOTUS delivers Trump another victory

From: POLITICO Playbook PM - Monday Mar 04,2024 06:12 pm

Mar 04, 2024

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The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington, D.C. ahead of the court's expected release of its decision in Trump v. Anderson.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously this morning that Donald Trump cannot be kicked off state ballots. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

THE CATCH-UP

The Supreme Court delivered DONALD TRUMP a critical win this morning, ruling in a unanimous decision that states have no grounds to remove him from the ballot for the 2024 election.

While the ruling was widely expected, it firmly clears up a point of contention for Trump as he mounts a comeback attempt and barrels toward a reelection matchup with President JOE BIDEN. The lede-all from Zach Montellaro, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney

FROM THE UNANIMOUS RULING: “An evolving electoral map could dramatically change the behavior of voters, parties, and States across the country, in different ways and at different times. The disruption would be all the more acute — and could nullify the votes of millions and change the election result — if Section 3 enforcement were attempted after the Nation has voted. Nothing in the Constitution requires that we endure such chaos — arriving at any time or different times, up to and perhaps beyond the Inauguration.

“For the reasons given, responsibility for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with Congress and not the States. The judgment of the Colorado Supreme Court therefore cannot stand. All nine Members of the Court agree with that result.” Read the full SCOTUS decision

LIBERALS ISSUE FIERY OPINION … In a six-page opinion, Justices SONIA SOTOMAYOR, ELENA KAGAN and KETANJI BROWN JACKSON said that while they agreed with the end result of the decision, they would have arrived at a narrower ruling that left the door open for the possibility of federal courts disqualifying Trump or another candidate alleged to have engaged in insurrection.

Their concurrence begins sharply with a line from the court’s Dobbs decision: “‘If it is not necessary to decide more to dispose of a case, then it is necessary not to decide more.‘ … That fundamental principle of judicial restraint is practically as old as our Republic. … Today, the Court departs from that vital principle, deciding not just this case, but challenges that might arise in the future.”

They go on to add that the main opinion “reaches out to decide Section 3 questions not before us, and to foreclose future efforts to disqualify a Presidential candidate under that provision. In a sensitive case crying out for judicial restraint, it abandons that course.”

In closing, they quote a line from former Justice STEPHEN BREYER’s dissent in Bush v. Gore: “What it does today, the Court should have left undone.”

… PROMPTING THIS RESPONSE: Justice AMY CONEY BARRETT penned her own one-page opinion, essentially agreeing with the liberals while (gently) chiding them for their tone.

“The Court has settled a politically charged issue in the volatile season of a Presidential election. Particularly in this circumstance, writings on the Court should turn the national temperature down, not up,” Barrett wrote. “For present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity: All nine Justices agree on the outcome of this case. That is the message Americans should take home.”

The short and sweet Trump reaction: “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!” he posted on Truth Social.

In remarks at Mar-a-Lago shortly after noon, Trump previewed the next big fight the Supreme Court is expected to decide: “Another thing that will be coming up very soon will be immunity for a president. And not immunity for me, but for any president” he said.

“If a president doesn't have full immunity, you really don’t have a president, because nobody that is serving in that office will have the courage to make, in many cases, what would be the right decision — or it could be the wrong decision. … They have to make them free of all terror that can be rained upon them when they leave office or even before they leave office.” Watch the clip

The Hill reaction: “Congressional GOP takes victory lap after Supreme Court rules states can't remove Trump from ballot,” by Anthony Adragna

ELSEWHERE IN THE COURTS — ALLEN WEISSELBERG, the former CFO of the Trump Organization, reached an agreement with Manhattan prosecutors today to plead guilty to perjury charges, NYT’s Ben Protess, William Rashbaum, Jesse McKinley and Kate Christobek report.

“Yet Mr. Weisselberg, who for years has remained steadfastly loyal to Mr. Trump in the face of intense prosecutorial pressure, did not implicate his former boss. … Mr. Weisselberg, who was led into the courtroom in handcuffs wearing a blue surgical mask and a dark suit, conceded that in recent years he had lied under oath to the New York attorney general’s office when it was investigating Mr. Trump for fraud.”

Not-so new territory: “In 2022, he pleaded guilty in a tax fraud case. Although he did not implicate Mr. Trump, he agreed to testify against the former president’s company, the Trump Organization, at its trial on the same charges. In that case, the company was convicted, and Mr. Weisselberg received a five-month sentence. With good behavior, he served nearly 100 days behind bars at the notorious Rikers Island jail complex.”

Good Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at gross@politico.com.

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6 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally Saturday, March 2, 2024, in Greensboro, N.C.

Donald Trump's campaign is trying to avoid excess spending in his comeback bid. | Chris Carlson/AP Photo

1. THE EXPENSE REPORT: As Trump continues his campaign comeback, he’s doing so on a tighter budget than before, with campaign hands SUSIE WILES and CHRIS LaCIVITA cracking down on excess spending in an effort to avoid a repeat of the 2020 campaign’s financial struggles down the stretch, CNN’s Alayna Treene, Kristen Holmes and Fredreka Schouten report.

The two big areas of focus are (1) staff transportation and (2) rally production. “After a recent event, one Trump staffer was discussing the Uber he took home before quickly clarifying to the group that it was an UberX, and the cheapest available option.” LaCivita, meanwhile, has “encouraged the team to make a concerted effort to host his events at smaller, less costly venues.”

“In addition to reining in spending on rallies and transportation, the campaign is also keeping a tight leash on the money being spent on hotels, meals and other everyday expenses typically associated with a large political operation, the advisers say. Even the furniture found in Trump’s state headquarters across the country has been meticulously chosen so as not to accrue superfluous costs, one senior adviser noted.”

2. ‘BIDENOMICS’ BITES BACK: The Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity is turning Biden’s own term against him in an effort to drag down the reelection campaign just in time for the State of the Union address, Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser reports. AFP is “announcing a new eight-figure campaign to showcase what it says is the ‘harmful impact’ of President Biden's economic policies on Americans.”

3. KEEP CALM AND KERRY ON: JOHN KERRY sits down with WaPo’s Maxine Joselow for something of an exit interview as he prepares to step down as the Biden administration’s climate envoy. Kerry discusses negotiating with China, how the U.N. is approaching climate talks and the administration’s work in the wake of Trump.

On China: “We were able to separate the very legitimate issues of contention … from what we think is not a bilateral issue at all, but a universal issue,” Kerry tells WaPo. “We were able to compartmentalize in a way that allowed us to be constructive.”

On the ground in Albany. Get critical policy news and analysis inside New York State. Track how power brokers are driving change across legislation and budget and impacting lobbying efforts. Learn more.

4. THE CLASSROOM CRISIS: “Biden’s plan to increase educator pay could mean fewer kids in class,” by Mackenzie Wilkes: “The proposed increases are meant to bring Head Start pay more in line with public elementary school teachers and reduce staff turnover, which spiked amid the Covid-19 pandemic. But the boon for workers will mean steadily cutting more than 110,000 slots for students over the next seven years unless Congress OKs additional funds — a difficult gambit for some Democratic lawmakers. The wage requirements alone would cost Congress $875 million in new annual dollars and $2.4 billion to implement the full proposal in 2030.”

5. THE TAR HEEL TUNE-IN: Though much of the focus for Super Tuesday is trained on the GOP presidential primary, many of the down-ballot races will provide much more drama and intrigue. NYT’s Eduardo Medina dives into one such in North Carolina, where the state is choosing a new governor. If expectations hold, by the end of the week the general election matchup will see Democratic state AG JOSH STEIN against GOP Lt. Gov. MARK ROBINSON. “The race will be closely watched in part because of the potential national implications: Both candidates are planning to portray each other in politically extreme terms, which could boost turnout not only for their elections, but also for the presidential race in the hotly contested state.”

6. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: “U.S. and Allies Reach for Last Resort to Get Aid to Gazans,” by WSJ’s Jared Malsin: “The United Nations and humanitarian groups say they welcome any aid, as truck deliveries become too dangerous, but say the airdrops are simply not enough to solve the growing hunger crisis in the strip. The airdrops represent a fraction of the essential goods needed by Gaza’s population. In the early weeks of the war, the U.N.’s World Food Program expanded its operation in Gaza to feed 1.1 million people, roughly half the strip’s population.”

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PLAYBOOKERS

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Chris Coons jumped aboard the “Dune 2” hype train.

TRANSITIONS — Ariel S. Gold is now director of IRS modernization for Inflation Reduction Act implementation at the Treasury Department. She most recently was senior policy analyst in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Transportation Department. … Meagan Foster is now a senior principal at Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies. She previously was legislative director and deputy chief of staff for Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.). … Kasey Lovett is joining JPMorgan Chase’s corporate responsibility comms team as VP with a focus on local public affairs campaigns. She was most recently senior director of comms at American Beverage. …

… Kim Linthicum is now a principal at Todd Strategy Group. She previously was SVP of government affairs and public policy at Myriad Genetics. … Alice Roosevelt is now a national security associate at Invariant. She is a recent graduate of UNC Chapel Hill. … Sol Ross is now director of Schneider Electric’s Sustainability Research Institute. He is an Obama HHS alum.

WEEKEND WEDDINGS — Michael Starr Hopkins, founding partner of Northern Starr Strategies, and Megan Mattson, operations counsel at the Women’s Tennis Association, got married Friday in Tulum, Mexico. They met in law school when they were put on the same moot court team. Pic … Another pic

— Suzanne Monyak, a judiciary reporter at Bloomberg Law, and Rodrigo Mercado, a management consultant at Ernst & Young, got married Saturday at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta, followed by a reception at the Piedmont Room. They met as freshmen at Georgetown. Pic … Another pic

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Correction: Thursday’s Playbook PM mischaracterized the reporting in an NYT story on Ukraine aid. CNN first reported that the Pentagon is considering whether to exercise its final drawdown authority.

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