The 14th Amendment to the Constitution bans anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the U.S. from holding office.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution bans anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the U.S. from holding office.
A Florida lawyer is suing Donald Trump in an attempt to disqualify his current run for president. Lawrence A. Caplan’s Thursday lawsuit claims that the ex-president’s involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot would make him ineligible to run again, thanks to the Constitution’s 14th Amendment—a Civil War-era addition aimed at preventing those who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the U.S. from holding office. “Now given that the facts seem to be crystal clear that Trump was involved to some extent in the insurrection that took place on January 6th, the sole remaining question is whether American jurists who swear an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution upon their entry to the bench, will choose to follow the letter of the Constitution in this case,” the lawsuit says, also citing Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Legal experts say it’s an uphill battle to argue in court, since the amendment has hardly been exercised in modern history. “Realistically, it’s not a Hail Mary, but it’s just tossing the ball up and hoping it lands in the right place,” Charles Zelden, a professor of history and legal studies at Nova Southeastern University, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Anyone who says that the election was rigged, and insists on it after being proven false over and over again, well..... if that doesn't prove malice, then I don't know what will.
He just did everything he could to encourage it and then watched on TV for over an hour giddy that it was happening, refusing to make a statement to call them off, when everyone he knew was begging him to. Yep totally innocent.
The term you are looking for is mens rea and from what we already know from the January 6th committee, Jack Smith has Trump dead to rights in that respect.
He also almost certainly has additional evidence that the committee didn't get and that we don't know about yet.
It's not looking good for Trump which is exactly why he's desperate to delay the trial until after the election in hopes that he wins and can make it all go away.
I'm surprised I even have to say this as I thought it was common knowledge regardless of one's political persuasion.
Except the trial for the insurrection is just barely starting, not to mention all the other indictments. Yes, he wasn't immediately locked up and should have been. Yes, he's being treated differently because he's rich, but it's not like nothing is happening.
For real. I'm really jealous that the courts in Brazil have already banned Bolsanaro from running for office for the next 10 years and Pakistan's parliament ousted Khan for being ungenerous to the Ukraine conflict and then later the police arrested him for bribery. Those are supposedly developing countries but they are doing a better job of controlling their tyrannical despots than we are. Fortunately, like I keep saying, Trump has too much work cut out for him to effectively campaign with so many charges. He's been in the lead, but I don't know if he can stay that way.
It’s crazy that anyone would think he can and should be allowed to run for President again. The 14th Amendment is quite clear. And the man incited a violent insurrection to install himself as a dictator during what was a purely symbolic procedure. Trump lost, Biden won. Counting the electoral votes on 1/6 was a formality. There was no actual way for him to remain in office so he betrayed the nation by attempting to destroy democracy as we know it in this country. The only place he belongs in 2024 is ADX Florence.
The question is how to enforce the 14th amendment. This suit looks like a decent attempt at it, that doesn't require Congress to act. (Congress has way too many Republicans right now, who will not enforce the 14th amendment against one of their own.)
Legal experts say it’s an uphill battle to argue in court, since the amendment has hardly been exercised in modern history.
i find this very strange. it’s like they’re saying no one really knows what the amendment means because it hasn’t been used in a while. i’m not a lawyer, so my opinion doesn’t really mean much on this. i but i don’t see how it’s that vague (although it is a little vague). i also don’t see why the legal strength of an amendment should depend so much on how often it’s been used.
i’m not saying they’re wrong, i just don’t understand why it’s like that.
It's not obvious what it means to "engage in insurrection" without case law defining what that means. What exactly does "insurrection" mean? What types of actions are required for this law to apply?
7 people were convicted already of seditious conspiracy, so either of the conspiracy charges connecting the former president with directing their actions would be pretty strong evidence.
The thing is, it's pretty clear to basically everyone else. We're supposee to have confidence in the people who interpret these things for us, but that's pretty clearly gone too. I'm pretty frightened about where we're headed because at some point people will get fed up that no one is getting real consequences and start handing them out themselves.
that's a good point and it helps me understand the problem a bit better. as someone outside the legal system though, it still seems like any sufficiently robust definition of insurrection should cover what he did on january 6th. but i guess having precise definitions is important in a legal setting and that problem still remains.
It doesn't say convicted, it says "engaged in" and I believe it prevented former Confederates from taking office. So it seems like there's a pretty big precedent backing it up.
And then there are other amendments like the 2nd Amendment with the puzzling and vague "well-regulated militia" language that never seems to be a problem...
Don't ignore the fact that it was fought in the courts for decades to get where we are now.
Now we have an amendment that hasn't been tested in the courts because no president has been enough of a corrupt, fascist, scumbag to require its use. So, it's going to have to go through the courts.
It's hard to see how this guy, or any other individual, has standing to sue over this. To sue someone you have to be able to prove that you personally were harmed in some way. And broad "this harms the electorate, and I'm part of the electorate" claims usually do not work.
I'm glad we have some educated people left in this world like you. Conservatives love worshiping law breaking facist pedophiles like Trump and backing Corporate conservative corporations that enable behavior like his. The Home Depot actively encouraged child molestation in the stores in Montana between their child trafficking high managers. I saw a store manager crack a bullwhip at one of his victims in Helena, while the HR and District manager laughed.
If it gets to the SCOTUS, and that's a very big if, they can easily make a ruling favorable to Trump without ever touching the question of whether or not he engaged in insurrection. I'm not any kind of expert, but as a long time amateur SCOTUS-watcher I think that's almost certainly what the conservative majority would do. You'd only see the question of insurrection mentioned in the dissenting opinion.
I'd love to see this asshat removed from any chance of getting into office. The GOP will replace him with someone just as awful as far as policies and fascist tendencies, but hopefully they'll be less appealing to the general electorate.
Think: DeSADIST. It was funny to watch how people reacted to his performance in that "debate". He's so unpleasant and smarmy, if he were to win the primary, I think he's flame out so hard in the general.
Very true. There are so many try-hards out there - people like Ronnie, Marge, and Qbert, and now Vivek, etc...I doubt that little d's base will fall quite as hard for any of them.
I think a lot of people would just be happy to see Trump cut out of the race for good. There will be no majority for DeSantis, because the Trump disciples will shun him, cutting down any possible Non-Trump REP candidate.
In that scenario I imagine there would be a large number of maga goons who would still write in Trumps name. I can also see people angrily crossing out Bidens name or otherwise defacing their ballot, spoiling their vote.
This next election is going to be an absolute shit show.
Seems more like a preemptive strike in an attempt to discredit the claim early in a friendly district.
That actually makes sense. It's plausible that it is strategic preemptive judge shopping. Success would create a protective precedent from the findings of a biased court. My reasoning is simple, if lots of the participants of the riot were charged with insurrection, then it logically follows that the person benefiting the most from the insurrection is likely guilty of it as well. The burden of proof should not be enormous to reach the top tier of that insurrection, because of public statements and suspicious neglect of duty to quietly support the effort. Things like wanting to remove magnetic weapon detectors to invite in armed insurrectionists should be a big clue.
Don Jr, although lauded by the right, also doesn't have what Trump has: an unerring ability to devote himself to the most simplistic and repetitive dogma in the face of all evidence and disagreement.
Part of Trumps success is to unwavering believe something, regardless of how misinformed, even when informed. Examples: "I use spray deodorant it didn't affect the climate that day", "I can change the weather report with a sharpie", "windmills cause cancer", "inject bleach to cure covid", "health insurance only costs $20 a month."
It's part of DeSantis' problem too that he couldn't say something like "blueberry jam makes you a better lover in bed and strawberry jam makes democrats have more abortions" and mean it.
Almost certainly, or else the suit could be dismissed on Double Jeopardy grounds. Even then, he would probably just appeal to the Supreme Court and get them to make up some reason to rule in his favor.
The 14th Amendment is consider to be "self-executing" and public election officials can disqualify candidates when presented with a plausible argument.
I don't get it, why try to keep him from running? Especially if you're a Democrat, letting Trump run would split the Republican vote and almost guarantee a Democratic victory.
Keeping him from running accomplishes about the same thing. The cultists will refuse to accept any other Republican nominee, and will refuse to vote, calling it "rigged."
There are still 3rd parties in the US, a prime example in US politics that would equate to this would be the Election of 1912, where President Wilson won against the incumbent Republican, President Taft. The only reason Wilson won was because Roosevelt ran as a Republican adjacent candidate under the "Bull Moose" party, which effectively split the Republican vote and prevented Taft from getting all of the Republican vote.
If Trump runs again, it is likely he will be running as an independent candidate, which will split the Republican vote and allow the Democrats a sure win.
I never saw this amount of energy to disqualify someone of a presidential election. (What is in this case good) It shows issues in the state itself and how the laws are made. It's already systemic.
I've never seen this amount of energy to run in the presidential election from an unqualified con-man. And I don't disagree with you on this showing issues in the state itself, but I suspect we may have different ideas on what those issues are.
Unfortunately our system was not designed in the anticipation of someone like Trump together with the complete siloing of information ecosystems made possible by modern technology.
What we're seeing is new in kind because both Trump and our information ecosystems are new in kind.
The founders also lived in a much more honor-based society wherein dueling was still very much a thing. Someone like Trump, a notorious liar and loud-mouthed braggart would have almost certainly been run through with a small-sword or shot while dueling. If he declined to accept a challenge to a duel, he would have been ostracized from polite society and effectively cut off from public office.
In other words, they expected that things like honor and decorum and the risk of being killed in a duel would provide for consequences not enumerated in the Constitution.
And they were right for over 200 years, then along came Trump and it turned out that such "customs and norms" were not enough.
We now see our old and very decrepit system --that was deliberately designed to be almost impossible to update -- struggling with that fact.
The groups that are calling for Trump to be disqualified are acting like a lynch mob. Think about the end result and how it could be used by nefarious future leaders who want to snuff out their competitors.
The very premise of "blocking Trump from running" is saying let's give a judge - perhaps only a single judge (!) - authority to tell voters who they can and cannot vote for.
I'll be the first to say that Trump should be in jail if he's convicted for his crimes. But I don't want any court to take away my right to put any name I want on that bllot, for any reason.
You can put whatever you want on your ballot. However, states have rules about which names they will print on the ballots as suggested potential votes. Having the legal process keep an enemy of the state off of a bunch of states’ ballots is a precedent I am totally cool with. Though I get what you’re saying because of course republicans will try to get the Democrat nominee disqualified if they think it’s at all possible.
It will be interesting to see how many write-ins he gets if he’s not on the ballot in various states. Or hell, even if he’s not the nominee in the first place.
Yes, he probably did, and that alone disqualies him from getting my vote and hopefully the majority too.
But consider that the founding fathers were insurrectionists. Consider that many figures in world history object to the ruling party's ideas and are labeled insurrectionists because of it. It's a tool of oppressors.
In fact, some might label any protestor who does a sit in or some other rebellious or obnoxious activity as insurrection. One of the dictionary definitions of insurrection is "The act or an instance of open revolt against civil authority or a constituted government." The constitution of the US doesn't offer a definition.
In many countries, politicians are suppressed by accusations of insurrection solely because they oppose whoever is in power at the time.
My argument is not that Trump is worthy of the job (he's not), rather that I want this kind of decision in the hands of the voters, not a handful of lawyers and judges.
It's not that simple, thanks to the Electoral College. If electing a president was based on popular vote, the last several Republican presidents wouldn't have been elected.
But thanks to how the Electoral College works, getting elected is based more on strategically winning specific states. Texas, for example, has several deep blue cities with some of the largest populations in the country. Yet, all 50-something electoral votes go to Republicans, because Republicans win the popular vote in the state. The will of those millions of people is discarded and flipped due to the other areas voting differently.