I’m usually very leery of reading much into oral argument. But it sure seemed clear from today’s argument that the Court will issue a unanimous, or near-unanimous, ruling that Donald Trump is not disqualified from the presidency under section 3 of the 14th Amendment. All three liberal justices (Kagan and Jackson especially) signaled that that was their position.
Here’s what I expect: The Chief Justice will write the opinion for the Court holding that Congress has the exclusive authority to provide the means for enforcing section 3. That opinion will probably be unanimous.
In addition to joining the Chief’s opinion, Justice Gorsuch and/or Justice Jackson might write separately to opine that section 3 does not apply to candidates for president. But the Chief will probably want to issue his opinion as soon as possible—maybe before the end of February—so he might persuade his colleagues not to write concurring opinions.