Shortly before the start of the presidential primaries, a court in the US state of Colorado has disqualified Donald Trump for his role in the storming of the Capitol. This is based on an amendment to the US constitution, which states that no one who has been involved in an insurrection or rebellion against the USA may run for office at federal level. Trump's lawyers want to take the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Political scientist Christian Lammert from the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies said on SWR radio that he was skeptical whether the decision from Colorado would stand up before the Supreme Court: "It would have massive consequences if a candidate were to be removed from the race so close to the election campaign. The Supreme Court will certainly consider the consequences of the decision. And we also know that the Supreme Court is currently very conservative."

Trump himself is responsible for the conservative preponderance of the Supreme Court because he appointed two judges and one female judge himself during his term as president. However, this does not necessarily mean that the Supreme Court would rule in Trump's favor, according to Lammert. Moreover, "this is all legal gray area. There were no precedents yet and the Supreme Court has to create them here." However, North American researcher Lammert believes it is likely that the Supreme Court will ultimately overturn the court decision from Colorado.

However, this would not protect Trump from being convicted in one of the many other proceedings against him at state level. There are a total of 91 charges against him. "The probability that he will be charged and convicted on some of them is very high," says Christian Lammert in an interview with SWR2 Aktuell presenter Albrecht Ziegler.

Click here for the interview (in German).