A 9-0 Supreme Court ruling on Trump shows that democracy isn’t partisan

It’s heartening that Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the rest of the Supreme Court to unanimously rule that states can’t kick ex-President Donald Trump off their ballots via a ridiculous reading of the 14th Amendment.

It shows that whatever partisan divisions there may be on the court, it’s ruled by a fair reading of the law. And the law in this case was being abused.

Anything less than a 9-0 ruling would’ve given the left license to pretend it lost because its “conservative” majority was playing politics.

None of this is to excuse Trump’s behavior around the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot; it’s to say that it’s not up to state officials to decide, without any real due process, that he thereby “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” and so is disqualified from future office, as Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled in December.

Those judges should be ashamed, along with the Maine and Illinois officials who followed suit, as well as all involved in dozens of similar cases in other states.

Basic legal issues (such as the fact that no one’s convicted Trump of anything like “insurrection”) aside, allowing this would license similar games without end, for a downward spiral that would make every presidential election a farce.