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.

  • Okokimup@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    3
    Ā·
    9 months ago

    This is what I hate about lemmy. I donā€™t know whether youā€™re right or not. Everyone else obviously thinks you are wrong, but instead of merely correcting what you got wrong, theyā€™re treating you like youā€™re arguing in bad faith. Being wrong and arguing in bad faith are two different things, and I see no evidence youā€™re doing the latter. Lemmings complain that this site is full of memes instead of discussion, but they need look no further than this thread to see why discussion is not happening here.

    • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      Ā·
      9 months ago

      Theyā€™re wrong, but I donā€™t think theyā€™re arguing in bad faith. What theyā€™re wrong about is that article 3 of the 14th is self-executing and doesnā€™t require a trial or conviction. This is because it was intended to bar former Confederate officers from holding federal office and trying and convicting all of them would have been a logistical impossibility.