A polling aggregate maintained by the website Real Clear Politics shows former President Donald Trump up by an average of two points over President Joe Biden. 

Yet in what would be a bombshell development, some observers say the outcome of next year’s election could be decided in a courtroom. 

Poll suggests battleground voters could be turned off by conviction

A poll released last month by The New York Times and Siena College found Trump pulling ahead of Biden in five out of six battleground states.

President Biden is trailing Donald Trump in five of the six most important battleground states one year before the 2024 presidential election, according to new polls by The New York Times and Siena College. https://t.co/t0Bgb7hHP1 pic.twitter.com/6E9iKpAn6q

— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 10, 2023

However, the survey also reported that roughly 6% of voters in those states would switch their support from Trump to Biden should the former president be convicted in one of his four criminal cases. 

That may explain why the former president’s lawyers have been arguing that his cases need to be delayed until after the 2024 race has concluded. 

Defense attorney calls Georgia case "election interference"

In an article published on Friday, The New York Times noted that Steven H. Sadow serves as Trump’s lead lawyer in Trump’s Georgia case, and he recently argued that it amounts to “election interference.”

“Can you imagine the notion of the Republican nominee for president not being able to campaign for the presidency because he is in some form or fashion in a courtroom defending himself?” Sadow asked.

He also pointed to Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the United States Constitution, which is known as the Supremacy Clause. It provides that the Constitution and federal law supersede state laws and constitutions. 

“Under the Supremacy Clause and its duty to the president of the United States, this trial would not take place at all until after he left his term of office,” Sadow said. 

Trump may turn to Supreme Court in D.C. case

Politico’s Playbook observed that Trump’s lawyers have made similar arguments in his Washington, D.C. case despite skepticism from Judge Tanya Chutkan. 

If it wasn’t apparent already, it is now clear that the most important decision determining the course of the 2024 election could be one made by the Supreme Court.

The latest in Playbook: https://t.co/B9W7XB7a5x

— POLITICO Playbook (@playbookdc) December 2, 2023

Playbook’s contributors argued this weekend that Trump will turn to the Supreme Court to “disrupt the schedule of the trial” and potentially push it back until after Americans have cast their ballots.