Did Trump incite the January 6, 2021 , riot on Capitol Hill and seek to overturn the election results? Should he be barred from running again? Is the former president immune from prosecution? These are just a few of the key questions that the US courts will have to answer as the 77-year-old real estate mogul seeks to return to the White House.

Election influence

Last month, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution that Mr. Trump was ineligible to run in the state’s primary because of his involvement in the riot at the US Capitol building.

Just two days after Mr. Trump appealed, the US Supreme Court, which has six of its nine conservatives and three Trump appointees, decided to take up the case and scheduled arguments for February 8. They may also issue a ruling early because Colorado and more than a dozen other states will hold primaries on March 5.

Courts in several other states have also considered Trump’s eligibility, including a recent decision by the Maine state court to bar him from participating in the primary election. The Oregon Supreme Court may also soon rule on disqualifying Trump from the state’s primary and general elections.

According to CNN, Mr. Trump is still on the primary ballot because the lower court’s ruling has been paused pending a Supreme Court ruling. If the judges conclude that Mr. Trump is not qualified to hold office, votes cast for him will not be counted.

A series of criminal and civil cases involving former President Trump has forced the US judiciary to play the role of referee in a heated election year. “This is not the kind of fight the courts like, but it is happening,” said William Howell, a political science professor at the University of Chicago.

Trump is facing a slew of serious charges for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his role in the Capitol Hill riot. He is also accused of hiding top-secret documents after leaving the White House and faces charges in New York state for paying a porn star to keep her quiet. 

And those are just the criminal cases, there are also other lawsuits related to his family’s business in New York.

Difficult questions

One of the headaches the judges will have to deal with is whether Mr Trump is immune from prosecution as a former US president, as he has claimed. “No former president has ever been prosecuted,” AFP quoted Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame. In addition, the judges must determine whether the riot on Capitol Hill was an insurrection and whether Mr Trump participated in the event.

The court’s actions will become a focus as the election heats up, as their rulings could determine the outcome of the 2024 US election, according to Mr. Mueller. The courts have been familiar with these issues before, but the litigants are usually small-time, independent or third-party candidates. “They’re not facing the front-runner,” Mr. Mueller said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Howell said the legal troubles reveal another reality about the courts: They tend to be very slow. In late December, for example, the justices postponed a decision on Mr. Trump’s claim that he was not   criminally prosecuted .

“That represents Trump’s strategy, which is to try to delay, delay, delay in the hope that he will actually be elected president and all of this will go away,” Howell said, suggesting that after being elected, Trump could pardon himself or dismiss the charges against him.