ON THE BALLOT: The Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday that Colorado cannot bar Donald Trump from the election ballot under the 14^th Amendment insurrection clause. This also voids attempts in Maine and Illinois to keep Trump off the ballot.

  The Court did not rule on whether Trump actually engaged in insurrection on January 6^th.  

  Speaking from Mar-a-Lago, Trump praised the decision but spent more time promoting the upcoming decision about whether he has presidential immunity from prosecution. 

  Justices gave differing reasons, but the Court ultimately ruled that it’s up to Congress, not the states, to determine someone’s eligibility under the 14^th Amendment to serve in federal office. The ruling says: “We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office. But States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency.”

  Article 3 of the 14^th says that no person who has previously taken an oath to the Constitution who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.” 

  Of course, this decision leaves enforcement of the 14th Amendment up to partisan politics as happened when Trump was acquitted after being impeached twice. Justice Sonya Sotomayor wrote that while she agrees with the overall opinion, “The majority shuts the door on other potential means of federal enforcement.” In her independent concurrence, she wrote that assigning enforcement power to Congress, the majority opinion as written answers a question the Court was not asked. 

SUPER TUESDAY: Voters head to the polls in 15 states today for primary votes on who will be the presidential candidates. Donald Trump will likely come close without quite locking up the Republican nomination.

LIARS POKER: Allen Weisselberg, the former CEO of the Trump organization, pleaded guilty to perjury yesterday in a deal that will send him back to New York’s Riker’s Island prison.

  Weisselberg pleaded guilty to lying in the New York attorney general’s investigation into the Trump organization’s systematic business fraud. The attorney general, Letitia James, sued Trump in 2022 and won 450 million in penalties and interest.

  Weisselberg was fined $1 million plus interest in the fraud case and permanently banned from serving in a financial position at any New York company.

  The 76-year-old Weisselberg has already spent 100 days at Rikers after pleading guilty to tax fraud. In asking for another five month sentence in this latest plea, prosecutor Gary Fishman said at the plea hearing, “The harm caused by the crime of perjury tears at the very fabric of our justice system.”

SEXUAL WARFARE: A United Nations report released yesterday said that it had found grounds to believe that sexual violence occurred against women during the Hamas October 7^th incursion into Israel as well as evidence that hostages being held in the Gaza Strip were also assaulted. It called for a full investigation.

  This was certainly clear already from the accounts and pictures revealed following the October attack. A lot of it is too gruesome to describe. The report says there was rape and gang rape in at least three locations: the Nova music festival, Road 232, and Kibbutz Re’im.

  The report also says investigators found “clear and convincing evidence” that hostages held in Gaza have been assaulted.

EN FRANCE: While the US remains in political turmoil over abortion, the French legislature yesterday voted to embed the right to abortion in the country’s constitution by a vote of 780 to 72.

  The amendment declares abortion to be a “guaranteed freedom” and the vote is believed to have made France the first country in the world to explicitly write access to abortion into its Constitution.

  Speaking before the vote, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said, “We are sending the message to all women: Your body belongs to you and no one has the right to control it in your stead.” 

THE OBIT PAGE: Juli Lynne Charlot, the creator of the poodle skirt that was as much an icon of the 1950s as sock hops, drive-ins, and saddle shoes, has died at age 101.

  The original was a simple circle of felt with a hole in the middle for a woman’s waist that made for a generously flowing skirt. Charlot then decorated it with sewn-on images, but it was the skirt with poodles on it that became the thing of the times for young women.

  She created the circle skirt in desperation for something to wear to a 1947 Hollywood party, calculating the circumference of the hole in the middle with a slide rule. She then sold several skirts to a boutique and shortly she was sewing poodles on them because they were chic at the time, and before long, so was the skirt.

THE SPIN RACK: A massive industrial warehouse burned and exploded overnight in Clinton Township outside Detroit. Police said in a warning that, “Debris is being projected into the air and coming down as far as a mile away from the explosion, so please stay out of the area and stay safe.” The fire is now under control. — Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty yesterday to online leaking of secret intelligence reports and sensitive documents in exchange for a 16-year sentence. — Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways are abandoning their plan to merge following the opinion by a judge that it would create a monopoly. — Jason Kelce, 36, the brother of the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce, announced his retirement after 13 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and one Super Bowl ring. In praise of the game, the retiring center said, “Stepping on the field was the most alive and free I had ever felt.” — 

BELOW THE FOLD: The diner booth where the television series “The Sopranos” faded to black, along with Tony Soprano’s life, sold at auction for $82,600 without a side order of fries.

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