--- title: If Supreme Court Can't Agree on Jan. 6, U.S. Never Will description: Several of the Justices refused to acknowledge that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was an insurrection, despite it being well-documented canonical: https://time.com/6692956/trump-supreme-court-insurrection-jan-6/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-02-08T22:29:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:39:27.091Z article:section: Politics og:title: If Supreme Court Can't Agree on Jan. 6, U.S. Never Will og:description: Several of the Justices refused to acknowledge that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was an insurrection, despite it being well-documented og:url: https://time.com/6692956/trump-supreme-court-insurrection-jan-6/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e7e6794dc4cd6c1/698a48564ee262118231ca1d/GettyImages-1988644203.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US Supreme Court hears arguments on Trump ballot case in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: If Supreme Court Can't Agree on Jan. 6, U.S. Never Will twitter:description: Several of the Justices refused to acknowledge that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was an insurrection, despite it being well-documented twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e7e6794dc4cd6c1/698a48564ee262118231ca1d/GettyImages-1988644203.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # If the Supreme Court Can't Agree on Jan. 6, the Country Never Will > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. Senior correspondent Philip Elliott brings sharp context to the issues driving the capital, connecting the decisions made in Washington to the institutions, industries and people they affect. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=2a5a2988-49be-45e2-873d-da3521fcfa43&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Justices Seem Wary of Kicking Trump off the Ballot in Historic Election Case [Watch (HLS stream): Justices Seem Wary of Kicking Trump off the Ballot in Historic Election Case](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/J0bfh3RZ.m3u8) (6:49)  _Published 2024-02-08. Trump said he was pleased with his team's performance after the justices appeared broadly skeptical of efforts to kick him off the 2024 presidential election ballot. "I listened today and I thought our arguments were very - very strong," he said. "Can you take the person that's leading everywhere and say, 'Hey, we're not gonna let you run. you know I think that's pretty tough to do but I'm leaving it up to the Supreme Court."_  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Feb 8, 2024 10:29 PM UTC Trump said he was pleased with his team's performance after the justices appeared broadly skeptical of efforts to kick him off the 2024 presidential election ballot. "I listened today and I thought our arguments were very - very strong," he said. "Can you take the person that's leading everywhere and say, 'Hey, we're not gonna let you run. you know I think that's pretty tough to do but I'm leaving it up to the Supreme Court."  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Feb 8, 2024 10:29 PM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ When Kellyanne Conway [injected](https://time.com/4642689/kellyanne-conway-sean-spicer-donald-trump-alternative-facts/) into the political bloodstream the phrase of art “alternative facts” just two days into then-President Donald Trump’s tenure in the White House, much of Washington found itself undulating between disbelief and despondent. _Were the very basics of verifiable_ [_truths_](https://time.com/4709920/donald-trump-truth-time-cover/) _going to be in dispute for the length of the Trump era?_ Now, roughly seven years later, the question seems quaint—especially on a day when the Supreme Court met to [consider](https://time.com/6692919/supreme-court-trump-v-anderson-oral-arguments/) if Trump was even eligible to seek a third presidential nomination in eight years given the [events](https://time.com/6301285/january-6-capitol-trauma-trump-arraignment/) that took place on Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol. This column is less about the [case](https://time.com/6692011/supreme-court-trump-v-anderson-case/) before the Justices on Thursday—of which they seemed firmly opposed to allowing a little-used portion of the Constitution to bar the GOP frontrunner from the ballot—and more about how those in thecourtroom talked about a dark day in our country that was also one of the most [well-documented](https://time.com/5953486/january-capitol-attack-investigation/) events in recent memory. It was, to be blunt, like watching a counterfactual history, one in which the then-President of the United States did not summon his most ardent supporters to Washington, give them a pep talk in the wake of a decided [loss](https://time.com/5907973/donald-trump-loses-2020-election/) at the ballot, and dispatch them to the Capitol with the stated mission of cajoling Congress to ignore voters’ will and to substitute their own pro-Trump judgment. Frustratingly, it neatly mirrored the divergent realities in American politics that seem dictated by party allegiance more than not-that-distant memory. Rather than accept what plainly happened before our eyes, several of the Justices seemed all too willing to paint a bald attack on democracy as something far less sinister. Trump’s lawyers were not alone in positing that the tumult of Jan. 6 “was a riot; it was not an insurrection. The events were shameful, criminal, violent—all of those things—but it did not qualify as insurrection.” Justice Samuel Alito qualified in one question that it was “allegedly” an insurrection. Chief Justice John Roberts, tasked with the unenviable goal of guiding his colleagues to a decision that spares the Court from looking like a partisan operation, seemed to nod to the challenge ahead in his question. “Insurrection is a broad, broad term,” he said. “And if there's some debate about it, I suppose that will go into the decision and then eventually … we would be deciding whether it was an insurrection when one President did something as opposed to when somebody else did something else?” At another point, Roberts branded the petition to disqualify Trump based on provisions of the 14th Amendment as “ahistorical.” The [question](https://apnews.com/live/trump-supreme-court-arguments-updates#0000018d-89aa-d1a3-a18f-ffaf03200000) before the Court started in Colorado, where its top court ruled on Dec. 19 that Trump was ineligible to compete in that state’s March 5 GOP primary on the ground that he participated in an insurrection. Under the provisions put in place after the Civil War to keep Confederates from continuing their battle against the abolitionist United States, those who rose up against American democracy were seen as unsuited for public office. Colorado’s judges agreed that the prohibition extended to Trump given his role in rallying a mob and instructing them to head to Capitol Hill on the day Congress was set to complete the typically pro-forma certification of the election results from weeks prior. The Court is expected to expedite its ruling in the case to decide Trump’s [fate](https://www.reuters.com/legal/trump-brings-fight-stay-ballot-us-supreme-court-2024-02-08/) in Colorado—and likely beyond it, given Maine has taken a [similar](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-is-blocked-from-the-gop-primary-ballot-in-2-states-can-he-still-run-for-president) reading of the 14th Amendment. The Justices seemed plenty [skeptical](https://apnews.com/live/trump-supreme-court-arguments-updates#0000018d-89aa-d1a3-a18f-ffaf03200000) of the Colorado case with even liberal-leaning members of the nine-person panel suggesting that the contemporary application of the Civil War provisions were as novel as they were unreasonably disruptive. But the contours of the conversation inside the Supreme Court’s chamber echoed the one that has unfolded for almost four years. Despite more than 1,200 people [charged](https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/36-months-jan-6-attack-capitol-0#:~:text=Approximately%2011%20individuals%20have%20been,restricted%20federal%20building%20or%20grounds.) with crimes around the Jan. 6 attack and almost 600 guilty pleas [entered](https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/30-months-jan-6-attack-capitol#:~:text=Approximately%20594%20individuals%20have%20pleaded,have%20pleaded%20guilty%20to%20felonies.), there remains a deeply held—and wrong—[belief](https://time.com/6277254/proud-boys-verdict-jan-6-insurrection/) that what [happened](https://time.com/5927664/capital-siege-trump-supporters/) on Jan. 6 was somehow business as usual. Others incorrectly [assert](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/january-6-minimizers/619634/) that the gathering at the Capitol was peaceful, or that the violent rioters were somehow organized by federal officials. The persistent—and, it needs to be said again, false—storyline that this was a false flag to discredit Trump shows no sign of relenting. One corner of the conservative-media echo chamber is more than [eager](https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-tucker-carlson-capitol-riot-mccarthy-adc245e22f50b076925eb72948062808) to keep this bunk [buzz](https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-reason-leaders-hid-january-6-tapes) going. A democracy doesn’t function well when its participants can’t even agree to see what is evident for all to see. For his part, Trump’s lawyer seemed more ready to spar on the legal theory than the facts of Jan. 6\. Responding to questioning, Jonathan Mitchell [argued](https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/supreme-court-trump-ballot-colorado-02-08-24/h%5F69aea1bbf5d36fedbd686fadb469ebd9) that even an “admitted insurrectionist” had a right to the ballot absent action from Congress, not courts. Later, Mitchell did a bit of clean-up in response to a question from Roberts: “We never accepted or conceded in our opening brief that this was an insurrection.” It may have failed, but the attempts to override the results of a legitimate election are now being lightly dismissed as foolhardy enthusiasm from the MAGA world. The fact that, more than three years later, there are still corners of this country—and well-educated and -connected ones at that—willing to excuse Trumpist tendencies of excess linked to Jan. 6 says a whole lot about the current state of our nation and the election we’re about to undertake. It’s why writing off President Joe Biden’s sluggish [poll numbers](https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/07/politics/democrats-biden-election-polling/index.html) would be a mistake for Democrats, to ignore the [disgust](https://time.com/6142138/young-voters-unhappy-washington/) members of both parties harbor for Washington as an institution, and why Trump’s [path](https://time.com/6561898/donald-trump-voters-2024/) back to power might be far easier than his critics would like to believe. The Court seems ready to put him back on the ballot in Colorado, but 2016 [proved](https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2016/results/president) that Trump could win the White House without Colorado. The 2024 election—with or without the Court’s help—could test that thesis again. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ ## Transcript [00:03] ice tres [00:07] I just finished watching. [00:09] the Supreme Court [00:12] beautiful. Thanks for watching many respects. [00:14] It's unfortunate that we have to go through a thing like that [00:17] and I consider it to be more election interference by the Democrats [00:22] as to what they're doing. [00:22] And the good news is we're leaving virtually every phone will [00:26] eating the I don't even know if we have any more. [00:29] I'm not sure that we even have the Republican candidate [00:33] somebody running with not making any impact. [00:35] So as you know, we won Iowa, [00:37] we won New Hampshire and records and each won a record. [00:41] You think we're going to do very well. [00:43] I'm heading out right now to Nevada. [00:44] I thought the presentation today was a very good one. [00:49] I think it was well-received. [00:50] I hope it was well-received you have millions of people that [00:54] are out there wanting to vote and they happen to want to go to [00:58] the me or Republican party what ever you want it, [01:01] however, you want to phrase it. [01:02] So I just say that they watching. [01:06] The Supreme Court today. [01:08] I thought it was very it's very beautiful process. [01:11] I hope that democracy in this country will continue as right [01:18] now. We have a very very tough situation with all of the radical [01:21] left ideas with the weaponization of politics. [01:25] May weaponized it like it's never been recognized before and the [01:29] one thing I'll say is they kept saying about what I said [01:31] right after [01:36] Nancy Pelosi, this was an Insurrection. [01:40] If it wasn't interested we can do except for the fact that somebody [01:46] so unnecessary so horrible, but there was no guns it would [01:55] know anything. But if you take a look at my words right after [01:59] you take a look at my speech from the Rose Garden, [02:01] which was very shortly after or you take a look at B. [02:05] I'm only on truth now, but at that time we were tweeting [02:09] and I was on Twitter if you take a look at those 536 tweets, [02:14] you'll see very beautiful very heartwarming statements [02:18] go home. [02:20] The police are doing their job to check the check the beautiful [02:24] statement. There is nothing more important to a presidency [02:26] than immunity because they have to be free to make decisions [02:30] without saying oh if I do this or if I do that as soon [02:33] as I get out of all this was going to be indicted for going [02:36] to have trouble you cannot allow the president to be out there [02:41] without immunity. They don't have immunity. [02:43] You don't have a presidency you lose you lose all is all form [02:49] of a free thought and good thought and you probably we can the [02:54] president due to a point that it was never supposed to be waking. [02:57] It would be very well. [02:59] I'm a Believer in the Supreme Court I listened today and I thought [03:06] our arguments were very very strong an argument that is very [03:12] important is the fact that you're leading in every race you're [03:15] leaving and every state you leading in the country against [03:18] both Republican and [03:20] Democrat and biting your leading in the country by a lot. [03:25] And can you take the person that's leading everywhere [03:28] and say hey, we're not going to let you run. [03:31] You know, I think it's pretty tough to do but I'm leaving [03:35] it up to the Supreme Court. [03:36] Thank you all very much. [03:37] Enjoy. Thank you peaceful transfer of Presidential Power is what [03:42] sets are democratic experiment that has persisted for 250 years [03:46] apart from those countries whose Democratic experiment [03:50] has failed Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is a self defense [03:55] for our constitution based on the idea learned through painful [04:00] experience that those who break their sworn oath to the Constitution [04:04] by engaging an Insurrection against it cannot be trusted [04:09] with public office President Donald Trump engaged in Insurrection [04:13] by inciting a violent mob to attack our capital and disenfranchised [04:18] over 80 million people who voted In doing so President [04:23] Trump disqualified himself from holding office. [04:26] That's not something we are doing to him. [04:28] That's not something any court is doing to him that is something [04:32] he did to himself under our constitution. [04:35] Today is a day that test our nation's commitment to the rule [04:39] of law and whether our constitution applies equally to everybody [04:44] regardless of their popularity. [04:46] The law is clear that President Trump can hold no office again, [04:51] unless two-thirds of Congress granted amnesty. [04:54] We are confident that the US Supreme Court will apply Section [04:59] 3 as written and uphold the decision of the Colorado Supreme [05:03] Court standing for the principle that no person is above the law. [05:10] threw up a constitution that was it still in effect, [05:15] but we had a little Insurrection back in the [05:20] late 1860 [05:24] and guess what they wrote. [05:28] amendment 14 with Section 3 in it [05:32] Insurrection you cannot serve if you committed Insurrection, [05:36] what is trying to throw out an election? [05:40] I call it Insurrection as well as rate in the US Capitol. [05:49] Baddest Insurrection. The last time it was rated was by the British [05:53] in 1812 after the war. [05:57] This is very personal to me. [06:00] I've lived a hell of a long time and I've gone through a lot [06:04] of presidents and this is the first one. [06:08] That is trying to destroy the Constitution. [06:11] We interviewed in this case early on and we are glad that it's [06:15] gotten to this point so that we can get some clarity for a nation. [06:17] Donald Trump is a qualified candidate these ridiculous [06:22] and novel legal theories to try and engage in election. [06:25] If parents are going to be certainly struck down. [06:28] At least we think so, we respect the independent Judiciary [06:31] and are in this branch of government, [06:34] but we feel strongly that we're going to succeed on the merits [06:36] and look forward to seeing Donald Trump on the ballot in Colorado [06:42] and certainly on the ballot for the November election so that [06:46] Joe Biden can finally be defeated and held accountable. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6692956/trump-supreme-court-insurrection-jan-6/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6692956/trump-supreme-court-insurrection-jan-6/"},"headline":"If the Supreme Court Can't Agree on Jan. 6, the Country Never Will","datePublished":"2024-02-08T22:29:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T07:39:27.091Z","description":"Several Justices argued a clear attack on our democracy was not that.","url":"https://time.com/6692956/trump-supreme-court-insurrection-jan-6/","keywords":["The D.C. 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