The latest survey of California voters from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies shows former President Donald Trump running away with the Republican nomination next year, his lead increasing despite, or perhaps because of, the four criminal indictments he is under. The same is true from coast to coast, where he is not only the probable favorite, he’s essentially already the presumptive nominee, which would set up a rematch next year with President Joe Biden.
But there’s a potential legal wrinkle that could take the matter out of the hands of Republican voters. Two prominent conservative constitutional scholars took a close look recently at the 14th Amendment, and came to the conclusion that Donald Trump is no longer eligible to run for president, any more than if he were under 35 years old or not a natural-born American citizen. Now the first lawsuit to bar him from the ballot has been filed, in the state of Colorado, and we can expect similar suits to follow in more states, likely including California.
For more on this, KCBS Radio political reporter and host of The State of California Doug Sovern spoke with constitutional law scholar Professor Rory Little of the University of California College of the Law in San Francisco.