Josh Gerstein at Politico:

After years of dodging Donald Trump-related questions, the Supreme Court is now facing the most consequential one of all: Is he an insurrectionist who is barred by the 14th Amendment from running for president?

Directly answering either “yes” or “no” would spark white-hot political fallout for an already embattled court. But in a case packed with technical and untested legal issues, there are still ways the justices could try to wriggle out of a definitive ruling that either kicks Trump off the ballot or hands him an unqualified legal and public-relations victory.

Chief Justice John Roberts and his colleagues will no doubt be studying these off-ramps as the court prepares for an expedited Feb. 8 argument in Trump’s appeal of a Colorado decision that deemed him disqualified for his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

“I certainly could understand if the court would like any of the procedural avenues that would avoid squarely addressing any of the merits. As a matter of first instinct, I think that would be attractive,” said Ned Foley, an election law professor at Ohio State University….