As the Colorado Supreme Court wrote, January 6 meets the bar for insurrection ā€œunder any viable definitionā€ of the term. The legal scholar Mark Graber, who has closely studied the Fourteenth Amendmentā€™s history, argues that ā€œinsurrectionā€ should be understood broadlyā€”an act of organized resistance to government authority motivated by a ā€œpublic purpose.ā€ That certainly describes the Capitol riot, in which a violent mob attacked law enforcement and threatened members of Congress and the vice president in order to block the rightful counting of the electoral vote and illegally secure the victory of the losing candidate. The historical record also suggests that the amendmentā€™s requirement that a prospective officeholder must have ā€œengaged in insurrectionā€ should also be understood broadlyā€”meaning that Trumpā€™s speech on the Ellipse that morning and his encouragement of the rioters while they smashed their way through the Capitol more than fit the bill.

  • Zagorath
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    10 months ago

    Soon after losing the Civil War in 1865, states that had been part of the Confederacy began to send ā€œunrepentantā€ former Confederates (such as the Confederacyā€™s former vice president, Alexander H. Stephens) to Washington as senators and representatives. Congress refused to seat them and drafted Section 3 to perpetuate, as a constitutional imperative, that any who violate their oath to the Constitution are to be barred from public office.

    Wikipedia can be wrong, but Iā€™d love to see some evidence presented to explain why it is, in this case.

    • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      any who violate their oath to the Constitution are to be barred from public office.

      Youā€™re the only one trying to say that doesnā€™t apply to trump.

      • Zagorath
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        10 months ago

        Itā€™s the case Trumpā€™s legal team will probably be making, and itā€™s one that a sizeable minority of Coloradoā€™s entirely Democrat-appointed Supreme Court seemed to agree with.

        To be clear, thereā€™s only one angle from which I think Trump gets out of this, if we assume a properly functioning legal system (which is itself, unfortunately, not a guarantee in America). For example, the District Court that originally heard this case said that the president was not an ā€œofficerā€ and thus the insurrection clause does not apply to it. This is patently ridiculous, and contradicts other sections of the US constitution. Obviously a president is an officer of the country over which he presides. A president who is found to have engaged in insurrection should therefore not be allowed to run again.

        But until Trump is found guilty in one of the many trials he is currently facing (Fulton County or the DoJ ones would be best), as a matter of law, it wouldnā€™t seem to follow rule of law to take a legal action that depends on that guilt.

        • ashok36@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          He was found, as a matter of fact, to have engaged in insurrection in the same Colorado district Court case you referenced. I donā€™t think youā€™re nearly as informed as you think you are.

          • Zagorath
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            10 months ago

            You donā€™t think Trumpā€™s legal team will make every argument they can? Certainly theyā€™ll try the ā€œpresident isnā€™t an officer and therefore 14th canā€™t applyā€ angle. Theyā€™ll also claim that even if it can apply, it shouldnā€™t here because he didnā€™t insurrect.