Election Update:

A judge has ordered that the opposition leader be reinstated on the electoral roll, clearing the way for him to stand in next year's presidential election.

Ah, but that's in Senegal. In America, the judges remove the opposition candidate from the ballot:

Colorado Supreme Court kicks Trump off the state's 2024 primary ballot for violating the U.S. Constitution

On today's Clubland Q&A, I'll take questions from Mark Steyn Club members around the planet on that and other matters. The fun starts at 3pm North American Eastern/8pm Greenwich Mean Time.

But, if you're wondering which bit of the US Constitution Trump has been "found" to have violated, it's the Fourteenth Amendment, Section Three:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

You'll notice that the above text singles out senators, representatives and members of the electoral college, but not the President. Nevertheless, that's no reason for sober prudent jurists not to go on a wild Rocky Mountain High and plunge America's wretched pseudo-republic into unknown territory.

What will be the next thrilling hairpin bend for the remnants of American self-government to career around? As we discovered last time, US Chief Justice John Roberts does not like his Supreme Court to be seen as "political" - but, as I observed to Shannon Bream on Fox back then, an avoidance of "political" questions eventually becomes political in itself. We are less than a month from the Iowa caucuses. Is Roberts going to allow the leading candidate in almost every poll to be picked off state by state by activist judges torturing American law into even more bollocks than it usually is? Or will he, as he chose not to in 2020, act?

Over at Powerline, Steve Hayward proposes a third option:

Trump could appeal to a federal district court, which could throw out the ruling, and the Supreme Court would then deny Colorado's petition for cert. The Supreme Court then dodges direct involvement, but gets the right result.

That makes so much sense it's almost certainly the one thing that's not going to happen. What's left of the American republic is unraveling before our eyes, and very fast. Steve's colleague, John Hinderaker, who is the very soul of moderation, puts it this way:

We are in uncharted waters. Never before have we confronted a situation when one political party, that controls a particular state or its highest court, has tried to prevent a candidate of the opposing party from running for president. One cannot overstate what a watershed moment this is. The Democratic Party has staked a claim to permanent control of our federal government, regardless of the will of the American people.

We'll talk about all that on today's show. I'm also happy to take any questions on my own upcoming trial, which starts January 16th at the DC Superior Court. It won't be as consequential as the Colorado decision, but it is a minor part of the same malign trend. As I said to Tucker a fortnight before the last so-called "election", a judges' republic is a contradiction in terms. He was struck by the phrase and repeated it: "That's a very deep point: a judges' republic is a contradiction in terms."

Many viewers, listeners and readers have asked how they can support my important free-speech cases on both sides of the Atlantic. You're welcome to pick out one of our seasonal Steynamite Specials, but, unless you live in a contiguous county to Steyn HQ, it's all getting a bit dicey for mail delivery before Christmas Day. So I'll just rattle off the gifts that can be digitally delivered, which are as follows:

a) signing up a friend for a Steyn Club Gift Membership;

b) buying a near-and-dear one a SteynOnline gift certificate; or

c) treating your loved one to a once-in-a-lifetime Mark Steyn Caribbean Cruise.

~Whether or not you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club, you can listen to our Clubland Q&A live as it happens wherever you chance to be on this turbulent earth: Club membership is required only to ask a question. We love to hear from brand new members, so if you've joined this week, either for a full year or a see-how-it-goes experimental quarter, do shoot me a head-scratcher for today's show.

But, if you're not interested in joining, no worries, as they say in Oz: We seek no unwilling members - and as always the show is free to listen to, so we hope you'll want to tune in.