The US Supreme Court influences the election campaign

Proceedings against Donald Trump and abortion - both sensitive issues in the 2024 US presidential election campaign. The Supreme Court has now announced that it will deal with them. The highest court could thus help the ex-president.

The US Supreme Court has announced that it will deal with a case concerning the storming of the US Capitol. This could also have a significant impact on an indictment against former President Donald Trump.

Specifically, it concerns the review of an appeal ruling on an indictment against several rioters involved in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. They are accused of obstructing official proceedings. The Supreme Court now wants to address the question of whether the defendants can even be charged with obstruction of justice under a federal law if, according to their defense lawyers, they were convinced they were protesting an illegitimate election.

Trump speaks of "stolen election"

Trump had denied his election defeat against Joseph Biden on November 20, 2020 and repeatedly emphasized to his supporters that the election process had been rigged and that Biden had actually lost to him. However, as he had no evidence to present, Congress was supposed to ratify the change of office between Trump and Biden on January 6, 2021. A large mob of Trump supporters then gathered in Washington and attempted to stop the ratification by violently storming the Capitol, where Congress meets. Trump had stirred up his supporters immediately beforehand during a speech. Five people died as a result of the riots.

The storm was seen as an attack on democracy and caused an international uproar. Numerous people involved have since been convicted in several trials on the grounds of obstruction of justice. Should the Supreme Court now rule against the guilty verdict of obstruction of justice, not only the trials of already convicted rioters would have to be retried.

Trump, serious charges and the 2024 presidential election

Obstruction of justice is also one of the charges against Trump in the election fraud trial in Washington. As the Supreme Court is taking up the issue and must decide first, the court in Washington is pausing the trial against him. However, the Supreme Court's decision is not expected until summer 2024.

This delay could play into Trump's hands enormously during the election campaign. The trial against him for obstruction of justice as a result of the election and as the person responsible for the storming of the Capitol was actually due to be heard in March 2024. The hearing and a not unlikely conviction based on the previous guilty verdicts of the others involved would therefore have taken place before two crucial dates in the 2024 presidential election.

Super Tuesday and the Republican nomination

The first date would have been Super Tuesday. This will take place on March 5, 2024, with 17 states electing delegates for the presidential election process. The second date is the convention of the Republican Party in July 2024, at which the Republicans will choose their official presidential candidate.

In polls, Trump is currently the most popular candidate among Republicans. However, if he had been found guilty before the dates, this would, as expected, not only have been clearly reflected in the contested delegate elections, but would also have made the Republicans' decision to choose a felon as their official presidential candidate more difficult.

Supreme Court rules on abortion pill

The US Supreme Court also announced that it will hear an important case on abortion law in the USA. The case concerns access restrictions for the abortion pill mifepristone, which an appeals court imposed in mid-August.

These have not yet come into force because the legal dispute is still ongoing. The Court of Appeal ruled that certain access restrictions issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2016 should be revoked. These include sending the pill by post and taking it without a healthcare professional.

The drug's distributor and the government of US President Joe Biden have appealed against this. Mifepristone was approved in the USA in 2000 and is usually used with the drug misoprostol for abortion. Since the nationwide right to abortion was overturned, allowing parliaments in the US states to regulate by law whether abortions are permitted, mifepristone has gained in importance.

What does abortion rights have to do with the election?

Opponents of abortion have therefore filed a lawsuit against the approval of mifepristone in the US state of Texas. They want to make access to medication abortion more difficult. The religious right and large sections of the Republican Party in particular have been trying to restrict the right to abortion in the USA for decades.

Nevertheless, the Republican presidential candidates are cautious because past elections and referendums in various states have shown that abortion is controversial among their electorate. While the candidates initially expressed clear opposition to abortion rights, they have recently been trying to avoid the question of their exact position - primarily in order not to scare away potentially more moderate voters.

The decisions of the US Supreme Court, on the other hand, are considered particularly important by many Republican voters and are rarely questioned. By announcing that it will deal with the case concerning the distribution and mailing of an abortion pill, the court is taking a polarizing decision away from the Republican candidates. In the event of a constitutional decision by the court, Trump could merely refer to it.