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Column: Disqualify Trump? The Supreme Court is getting lots of urgent advice — but no clear direction

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Column: Disqualify Trump? The Supreme Court is getting lots of urgent advice — but no clear direction

The magnitude of the Supreme Court’s coming decision on whether Donald Trump should be disqualified from the presidential ballot can be measured in pounds — namely, the weight of the quickly growing pile of friend-of-the-court briefs that an array of outside groups and individuals have submitted to the court.

Trump’s lawyers filed their main arguments against the Colorado Supreme Court ruling disqualifying him for insurrection under the 14th Amendment a week ago, and more than 30 amicus briefs were filed that day. That brought the total to about 40, a number that is certain to grow.

The briefs themselves are divided among those that support the Colorado ruling, those that support Trump’s appeal and those that advance principles to guide the decision without coming down on either side. While some are from relatively obscure quarters, many come from prominent players whom the justices (and the clerks who sift through the briefs) will readily recognize.

What’s really striking about the briefs is that they all scream that the sky is falling and that disaster will ensue unless the court does as they advise. The trouble is that the advice in question is all over the lot.

Effectively, the court is being advised by its respectable “friends” (the meaning of “amicus”) that the Republic itself is lost no matter what it does. The briefs underscore the impression that this will be a case for the ages and one of the toughest in the court’s history.

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One brief from prominent election law professors and practitioners, including veterans of both sides of Bush vs. Gore, advises the court that the country is more polarized now than at any time in living memory — far more than in 2000 — and that the court must rule on the substance of the case or risk doing great damage to the nation. In other words, they argue, the court must not cop out by ruling that some other political entity — either Congress or the states — must enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits officials who have engaged in insurrection from holding federal office.

A brief from 179 members of Congress — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other prominent Republicans — agrees that a wrong move by the court “presents a serious risk to the democratic process.” But they go on to counsel that it’s Congress that has the express authority to administer Section 3 through legislation and that the court can’t answer the political questions involved. Accepting these rationales would mean that the court dodges the question of Trump’s eligibility for the presidency.

The NAACP’s brief, meanwhile, agrees that “our nation is at a precipice not seen since the Civil War.” Yet it argues, in direct opposition to the legislators, that Section 3 is self-implementing and fully justiciable — that is, it requires no determination by Congress and can be decided by the court. Indeed, the group insists that a failure to disqualify Trump would “circumvent our constitutional commitment to … the principle that all citizens must have an equal voice in our government.”

Former Attys. Gen. Edwin Meese, Michael Mukasey and William Barr, joined by prominent conservative professors, agree on the stakes: A false step by the court “would be ruinous for the Nation’s tradition of free and fair elections.” But their advice to the court is an admixture of the other briefs’ bottom lines: They argue that the amendment requires enabling legislation but also that it does not cover presidential candidates.

There are many more, including an intriguing brief by law professors (and brothers) Akhil Reed Amar and Vikram David Amar advising the court that Section 3 was prompted not by the Civil War but by a previous insurrection that Trump’s conduct much resembles. And a forthcoming brief by retired federal appellate Judge J. Michael Luttig and others is expected to contend that the terms of the 14th Amendment straightforwardly disqualify Trump.

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Amicus briefs can occasionally be decisive. A famous example is the brief from an editorial cartoonists’ group that helped persuade Chief Justice William Rehnquist to side with Hustler magazine over televangelist Jerry Falwell. It emphasized the long-standing national tradition of cartoons savaging public figures.

As I’ve previously argued, more than any Supreme Court case in decades, this one combines huge political stakes with a nearly blank slate of controlling law. The court will have to search for a solution that is legally supportable, broadly acceptable to the public and minimally injurious to the court’s diminished public standing. That turns out to be a very tall order.

With all eyes on the justices and the health of our democracy very possibly in the balance, the court could certainly use a good friend right about now.

Harry Litman is the host of the “Talking Feds” podcast. @harrylitman

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Newsom’s wife lashes out at Trump after he rips ’60 Minutes’ host: ‘Internalized misogyny’

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Newsom’s wife lashes out at Trump after he rips ’60 Minutes’ host: ‘Internalized misogyny’

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California’s “First Partner,” Jennifer Siebel Newsom, ripped into President Donald Trump after his contentious “60 Minutes” interview with the female host, slamming the president for “speak[ing] to a woman journalist with that level of contempt.”

The interview included a contentious back-and-forth between Trump and Norah O’Donnell over her questions about the shooter from this past weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, with President Trump calling O’Donnell a “disgrace” and “disgraceful” amid the interview.

Trump’s comments came after O’Donnell was reading excerpts from the shooter’s alleged manifesto, which described the president as a “rapist,” “pedophile” and “traitor,” O’Donnell recounted during her talk with the president Sunday evening.

“My family and I watched the 60 Minutes interview with Donald Trump and Norah O’Donnell last night, and we were shocked. Seeing a president speak to a woman journalist with that level of contempt — and a clear allergy to facts — is disturbing, though at this point not unexpected given his pattern of behavior,” California Governor Gavin Newsom’s wife said in a scathing X post on Monday.

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TRUMP REVEALS A ‘BIG POLITICIAN ON THE OTHER SIDE’ ASKED TO HUG HIM AFTER DINNER SHOOTING

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, California’s first partner, speaks during a Gender Equity Summit in Sacramento, California, US, on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. Bloomberg’s Emily Chang meets California’s First Couple, Governor Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and visits their home in Marin County and offices in Sacramento to see how they work together. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)  (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“But that is the problem,” she continued. “Because when that level of disrespect from the highest office in the country repeats itself, it starts to trickle down into our culture and define what power looks like, shaping how boys and plenty of men see women and girls and what they come to accept as normal behavior.”

Fox News digital reached out to the White House and to representatives for Governor Newsom and his wife, but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Trump’s “60 Minutes interview came Sunday evening after authorities identified the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Allen, of Torrance, Calif. Authorities indicated Allen had prepared a manifesto outlining his intent, which included anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric on social media. O’Donnell, during the interview, read alleged portions of the document that alluded to concerns about Trump being a sexual abuser and a traitor, leading to a defensive reaction from Trump.

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“I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people,” Trump answered. “Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”

UNEARTHED CLIP EXPOSES SHOCKING CLAIM BY NEWSOM’S WIFE ABOUT INMATES AT VIOLENT CALIFORNIA PRISON

“Do you think he was referring to you?” O’Donnell asked.

Norah O’Donnell on the new set of CBS Evening News with Norah ODonnell in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 16, 2022.  (T.J. Kirkpatrick/CBS via Getty Images)

“I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all…stuff that has nothing to do with me,” Trump continued. “I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, let’s say, Epstein or other things. But I said to myself, ‘You know, I’ll do this interview and they’ll probably…’ I read the manifesto. You know, he’s a sick person. But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I’m not any of those things.”

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O’Donnell interrupted to argue that she was quoting the alleged gunman’s words, but Trump continued to call her “disgraceful.”

“You shouldn’t be reading that on ’60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace. But go ahead. Let’s finish the interview,” Trump said.

NEWSOM TRIES TO GIVE TRUMP THE BIDEN TREATMENT, SAYS HE’S ‘NOT ALL THERE’

Trump’s “disgrace” comments garnered widespread attention online, including from Siebel Newsom, who said after the interview that the “culture of misogyny” exhibited by Trump “is on all of us, and it has to end.”

US President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC, shortly after a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25, 2026. (Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)

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“Add in rhetoric rooted in political division, amplified by a digital ecosystem that rewards outrage and misinformation, and this cultural norm of hate, othering, and misogyny becomes pervasive,” Siebel Newsom continued. “Behavior that should be challenged gets normalized; what should raise concern is amplified and cheered on. It’s no wonder we have a culture that normalizes dominance and aggression toward women and girls, which not only silences them but also leads to internalized misogyny in others.”

However, conservatives rallied around Trump.

“What’s really disgusting about this clip is Norah O’Donnell’s fake innocent surprise: ‘oh you think he was referring to you?’ She knows perfectly well that every day some fellow Democrat like Ted Lieu calls Trump a pedophile and rapist,” said New York Post columnist Miranda Devine in response to pushback on Trump’s interview comments.

“Their white supremacy lies ran out of steam so this is the new hoax. Rich from a party that protects illegal alien child molesters.”

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“Norah O’Donnell may have reached the low point in disgusting and inhumane demagoguery disguised as journalism,” added former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. “The idea that you would take the vicious dishonest and disgusting words of a would be killer who had been blocked by the Secret Service but would otherwise have killed a lot of people and you would dignify them by putting them on the air and asking the President of the United States to comment is about as destructive as anything a major reporter has done in a long time.”

Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the US House of Representatives, speaks during the third day of Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, on July 17, 2024. (Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Gingrich said O’Donnell “should be fired for demeaning her entire profession and being the mouthpiece of a would-be killer.”

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Torrance man charged with attempt to assassinate Trump; records detail alleged ‘manifesto’

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Torrance man charged with attempt to assassinate Trump; records detail alleged ‘manifesto’

Federal prosecutors on Monday charged 31-year-old Torrance resident Cole Tomas Allen with attempting to assassinate President Trump after rushing past security at the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner in Washington on Saturday.

The charge, announced during a brief arraignment hearing in federal court in Washington and detailed in a subsequent charging document, carries a potential sentence of life in prison for the Caltech graduate and high school tutor.

Prosecutors also charged Allen with transporting firearms across state lines while traveling by train from California to Washington and with discharging a firearm during the incident at the Washington Hilton, where officials said a federal agent was shot in his ballistic vest.

In the charging document, prosecutors also detailed an email Allen allegedly sent to family members just as he was preparing to breach the event perimeter, in which he allegedly wrote that top Trump administration officials were his target but that he was willing to “go through” others at the event to reach them.

Allen was instead taken down by agents shortly after rushing past them and before descending stairs and entering a ballroom where Trump and other top administration officials were seated. No officials were injured during the incident, which the White House described as the latest in a string of attempts on Trump’s life.

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Federal public defenders assigned to represent Allen did not respond to a request for comment Monday. Allen could not be reached for comment. A person previously reached at the Allen family home in Torrance — which was searched by the FBI over the weekend — declined to comment.

At the morning hearing, Asst. U.S. Atty. Jocelyn Ballantine said Allen “traveled across multiple state lines with a firearm” and “attempted to assassinate the president with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun.”

Top administration officials — including acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel — echoed those claims at a subsequent news briefing. Blanche described Allen as a serious threat, while also downplaying his proximity to the president and the likelihood that he ever could have caused harm to administration officials.

“Law enforcement did not fail. They did exactly what they are trained to do,” Blanche said. He said Allen had either fallen or was tackled to the ground while under fire from law enforcement.

Blanche and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Allen was charged with attempting to assassinate the president because of his writings — which Trump and others in the administration have referred to as a “manifesto.”

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Blanche said officials have seized devices from Allen’s hotel room and his home in Torrance, which could add additional context to his motivations, but officials were not prepared to discuss what may have been found on those devices. Pirro said additional charges were pending.

Blanche emphasized that the investigation into the incident is in its early stages. It still isn’t clear, for example, who fired the shot that struck the Secret Service agent.

“We’re still looking at that,” Blanche said.

In the charging document, prosecutors included the text of the manifesto — an emailed document they allege Allen had scheduled to automatically send to family members around the time he entered the secured area at the hotel, in which he declared that Trump administration officials were his targets.

In the emailed document, titled by the writer as an “Apology and Explanation,” Allen allegedly wrote that Trump administration officials would be “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest” in terms of how he targeted them.

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“I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” he wrote, according to the charging document.

Allen allegedly wrote that Secret Service agents were “targets only if necessary, and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible”; that police, hotel employees and hotel guests were not his targets; and that he would be using buckshot to “minimize casualties,” according to the document.

“I don’t expect forgiveness, but if I could have seen any other way to get this close, I would have taken it,” he wrote, according to the document. Allen, a tutor in Torrance, also apologized to his family, colleagues and students, but said he felt he had to act as a U.S. citizen represented by the Trump administration.

“What my representatives do reflects on me. And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” he allegedly wrote.

The charging document also described the initial moments when Allen entered the secured area and a Secret Service agent was allegedly shot in his ballistic vest.

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Prosecutors wrote that federal agents “heard a loud gunshot” as Allen rushed through a metal detector holding a long gun, that a Secret Service officer identified only by the initials “V.G.” was “shot once in the chest” in a ballistic vest, and that he “drew his service weapon and fired multiple times at ALLEN, who fell to the ground and suffered minor injuries but was not shot.”

Allen was found in possession of a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and a Rock Island Armory 1911 .38-caliber pistol, the document alleged.

Prosecutors requested Allen be held in detention. U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh, who presided over the hearing, set a second hearing for Thursday morning to determine whether Allen will be held in custody.

Federal public defenders assigned to Allen after he submitted a financial affidavit to the court requesting representation noted that Allen has no prior criminal record, a factor in determining a criminal suspect’s handling before trial.

Those attorneys — Tezira Abe and Eugene Ohm — did not respond to a request for comment after the hearing.

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Allen, clad in a royal blue jumpsuit, showed no visible injuries and said little at the hearing, aside from identifying himself and acknowledging that he understood the legal proceedings.

Allen had allegedly outlined his disdain for and intent to kill Trump administration officials in the manifesto written before the correspondents’ dinner. According to the New York Post, Allen in that document described himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” who wouldn’t hesitate to shoot any of the more than 2,600 people in attendance to reach officials.

Those at the event included hundreds of journalists and many Trump administration officials — including Vice President JD Vance and First Lady Melania Trump.

Allen had booked a room at the Washington Hilton, where the dinner took place.

Trump in a “60 Minutes” interview Sunday said he “wasn’t worried” at the sound of gunshots. “We live in a crazy world,” he said.

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Trump, who has been dogged by questions about his relationship with the deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein throughout his second term, bristled at the shooter’s reference to a “pedophile” and “rapist” in the manifesto.

“I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody,” Trump said in the interview with CBS reporter Norah O’Donnell. “I’m not a pedophile.”

He also railed against O’Donnell for quoting that portion of the manifesto, saying it was inappropriate to do so.

During an earlier news conference Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the White House was considering whether to revise Secret Service protocols for large events attended by the president, despite his satisfaction with the agency’s performance at Saturday’s event.

Leavitt said the Secret Service successfully neutralized the suspect and cleared the president, first lady and vice president from the room within minutes.

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Still, with major celebrations planned around the nation’s 250th anniversary, the World Cup and the Olympics, discussions on potential updates to Secret Service plans will begin this week, led by Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Leavitt said. For security reasons, the results of those discussions will likely be kept a secret, she added.

“If adjustments need to be made to protect the president, they will be made,” she said.

Leavitt also called on Congress to pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Secret Service, after a political impasse has led to an historic 73-day lapse in such funding.

Leavitt also suggested anti-Trump rhetoric from the president’s detractors played a role in him being targeted and needed to be toned down.

“It is inspiring these crazy people across the country to target not just the president, but those who work for him and those who support him,” Leavitt said.

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“Nobody is recent years has faced more bullets and violence than President Trump,” she added. “This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators — yes, by elected members of the Democrat Party, and even some in the media.”

Blanche echoed that argument — pointing blame at the media, many of whom had been in the ballroom with Trump.

“When you have reporters, when you have media just being overly critical and calling the president horrible names for no reason and without evidence, without proof, it shouldn’t surprise us that this type of rhetoric takes place,” he said.

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Cole Tomas Allen, Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting Suspect, Was Propelled by Outrage, Authorities Say

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Cole Tomas Allen, Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting Suspect, Was Propelled by Outrage, Authorities Say

The authorities have said that the suspect in the Saturday attack was taken into custody shortly after charging through a security checkpoint and exchanging gunfire with federal law enforcement officials inside the Washington Hilton. He was armed with knives, a shotgun, and a handgun, authorities have said.

The suspect is initially expected to be charged with two counts of using a firearm and one count of assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said on Saturday. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday in Federal District Court and additional charges are expected, she said.

Mr. Allen was born the oldest of four siblings in Los Angeles County.

As of Saturday night, Mr. Allen’s father was listed online as an elder at Grace Torrance, which describes itself as a Protestant church in the Reformed tradition.

In 2013, Mr. Allen enrolled at the California Institute of Technology, or Caltech, an elite research university in Pasadena, Calif. At that time, according to federal data, Caltech admitted less than 11 percent of its undergraduate applicants.

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There, Mr. Allen studied mechanical engineering. He graduated with a 3.0 GPA, according to his LinkedIn profile.

In the summer of 2014, he did a summer internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, according to his LinkedIn profile. And a local news clip from 2017 shows Mr. Allen, clad in a checkered collared shirt and sweater, demonstrating his design for a wheelchair emergency brake at a conference focused on designing products for older people.

He was also involved in the Nerf Club, in which members armed with foam toys organized campus battles, and belonged to a campus Christian fellowship. Another fellowship member recalled that while Mr. Allen was generally quiet and studious, he was not shy about defending his own interpretation of his faith.

“He was definitely a strong believer in evangelical Christianity at the time that I knew him,” the fellowship member, Elizabeth Terlinden, said.

After graduating from Caltech in 2017, Mr. Allen spent several years working as a mechanical engineer, a self-employed video game developer and a college test-prep tutor, according to his LinkedIn profile.

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In 2022, he enrolled at California State University, Dominguez Hills, to pursue a master’s degree in computer science. The university said in a statement on Saturday that it had a record of a student matching Mr. Allen’s name earning a degree in 2025.

Bin Tang, a professor of computer science at the university, taught Mr. Allen in several classes.

“I am very shocked to see the news,” Dr. Tang said in an email. “He was a very good student indeed, always sitting in the first row of my class, paying attention, and frequently emailing me with coursework questions.”

Records shared by the two law enforcement officials show that Mr. Allen bought a handgun in October 2023 and a shotgun in August 2025.

According to the note shared by authorities, Mr. Allen told his colleagues and students in recent days that a personal emergency would keep him from his tutoring duties and told his parents that he had “an interview.”

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Then he took a train from Los Angeles to Washington via Chicago, checking into the Hilton hotel a day or two before the hotel hosted the White House Correspondents Association dinner, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, told “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Mr. Blanche added that initial evidence indicated that Mr. Allen had acted alone.

Alan Blinder, Devlin Barrett, Sonia A. Rao, Pooja Salhotra, Orlando Mayorquín, Laurel Rosenhall, Jin Yu Young, and Stephanie Saul contributed reporting. Georgia Gee contributed research.

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