Writing in the New York Times, columnist Jamelle Bouie writes that former President Donald Trump's actions make him an insurrectionist by any reasonable definition and that the Supreme Court should uphold Colorado's decision to bar him from the ballot. To support his case, he cites extensively from an amicus brief submitted the Supreme Court by Professor Vikram Amar. Writing along with his brother, Akhil Reed Amar, professor at Yale Law School, the brief suggests that Trump's actions are similar to John B. Floyd, secretary of the war during the succession crisis of 1860, who directed arms to southern states to be on hand "when treason wanted them." The Amars conclude that “Certain inactions loom specially large when a current officer, with special obligations to affirmatively thwart other insurrectionists … instead sits on his hands, smiling, as chaos erupts around him. This is precisely the case of Donald Trump.”

Read more of Bouie's opinion piece at the New York Times.