Pleading The 14th

14th Amendment

Section 3.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

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Remember when Republicans would praise the Constitution? Well, mostly the Militia Amendment and the parts that gave them an edge over democracy in the Electoral College and undemocratic Senate. All those Constitutional powers for taxes, regulation of commerce and providing for the general welfare are just “Marxism”.

 

Remember when pompous Republicans would self-righteously boast they were the “Law and order Party”? Apparently, law and order to them is allowing police to pin Black men with a knee to the neck, or shooting them in the back because they “felt threatened”.

 

Gone are the days.

 

Now the radical Right Party of Trump are good with their Dear Leader’s desire to eliminate the Constitution and any law enforcement agencies that get in the way of their messiah’s megalomania. When the law seeks accountability for attempted theft of an election and the theft of nuclear and military secrets, then it’s “weaponization of the justice system”. Yes, the patented neo-Nazi/white nationalist “victim card”. After years of “cruel oppression” under Blacks, “Globalists” (Jews), Muslims, Mexicans, journalists and educators, the delicate white snowflakes are melting down over the rule of law itself.

 

Of course, they have no problem with Trump telling his Department of Justice to interfere with an election on his behalf ordering them to, “Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen”. Former Assistant Attorney General and criminal defendant Jeffry Clark proceeded to do just that before several true law and order DOJ officials said they would resign en mass if that happened.

 

And of course, these “Constitutional conservatives” have no problem with their Tangerine Tyrant insisting his Big Lie claim of a stolen election “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution”.

 

As we’ve suspected all along, Republicans want “law and order for me and not for thee”. Yeah, that’s exactly how we get a dictatorship and police state. And that is what they really want. This is why they follow the fascist playbook to seize minority rule, even by force.

 

Many of them stormed our Capitol to overturn our democracy by violent insurrection for Trump’s Big Lie. (Historic parallels: Both Hitler and Trump are famous for scapegoating minorities, a Big Lie, AND an insurrectionist Putsch.)

 

Another favorite lie from the American radical Right is, “Hitler was a socialist! It’s in the party name!” Right…and North Korea is a “democratic republic”. Every honest and sane person knows Nazis are fascists.

 

I’ll submit Hitler’s own words for the historical record.

 

After the allied invasion of Italy, Mussolini was deposed and jailed. Hitler needed to send in his SS “fire brigade” to Italy. There were no socialists or Marxists among them. They were loyal Nazis sworn by oath to the Fuhrer.

 

From Hitler Directs His War” by Felix Gilbert (1950, New York) pp.55ff.

“I have to take politically reliable units. I can only accomplish something with elite formations that are politically close to fascism.”

 

To quote the beloved anti-Nazi American patriot Stan Lee, “‘Nuff said”.

 

There are more of Hitler's slogans and polices that would draw cheers from the MAGA crowd, including their classic “Commie card” for the opposition and demonization of journalism, the arts and education by “culture war”.

 

"We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press-in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during recent years."

Hitler (a Radio Broadcast July 22, 1933; from My New Order, cited in The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1. pp. 871-872, Oxford University Press,London, 1942)

 

“The German state is gravely attacked by Marxism."

 

"The Marxists will march with democracy until they succeed in indirectly obtaining for their criminal aims the support of even the national intellectual world, destined by them for extinction."

 

Note the conflation of Marxism and democracy and contempt for intellectuals. Today’s neo-Nazis howl about “Marxist CRT” as they dictate or shut down studies of African American history.

 

Republicans and Nazis share the same disdain for women’s reproductive freedom and desire to keep women in their place as unwilling breeders.

 

On October 10, 1936, Heinrich Himmler created the Reich Central Office for Combating Homosexuality and Abortion, or Special Office (II S), a sub-department of Executive Department II of the Gestapo.

 

It’s quite clear neither Hitler nor Trump would respect the law when it stood between them and power.

 

Following the footsteps of Hitler’s 1923 Putsch, Trump launched his violent insurrection on January 6, 2021. We all saw it. We all saw how he waited for hours in hopes they would succeed in overturning the election. Then we saw him PRAISE his mob of thugs saying, “We love you. You’re very special”.

 

On January 6, 2021, Republican Senator Mitt Romney said, "What happened here today was an insurrection, incited by the president of the United States."

 

Also on January 6, 2021, Mitch McConnell said, “We’re debating a step that has never been taken in American history, whether Congress should overrule the voters and overturn a presidential election...

Self-government, my colleagues, requires a shared commitment to the truth, and a shared respect for the ground rules of our system. We cannot keep drifting apart into two separate tribes with a separate set of facts and separate reality, with nothing in common except our hostility towards each other and mistrust for the few national institutions that we all still share....The United States Senate has a higher calling than an endless spiral of partisan vengeance. It would be unfair and wrong to disenfranchise the voters and overrule courts and the states in this extraordinarily thin basis.”

 

(How long until he forgets that part about “a separate set of facts and separate reality”?)

 

On January 12, 2021, ten Republicans join all House Democrats to impeach Trump for "incitement of insurrection" by a vote of 232 to 197.

 

Trump’s boot-licker Kevin McCarthy was moved to admit the facts on January 13, 2021. "President Trump bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have IMMEDIATELY denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts require immediate action by President Trump to accept his share of responsibility, quell the brewing unrest and ensure President-elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term.”

 

On February 13, 2021 the Senate voted 57–43 with 7 Republicans to convict Trump of inciting insurrection.

 

On June 23, 2023, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that he supported an effort to hold a vote "expunging" both impeachments of Trump. This is not a thing, but they really do try to expunge facts and history.

 

During the first Republican presidential debate on August 23, 2023, all but Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson raised their hands in support of reelecting Donald Trump, even if he is convicted of crimes.

 

Here a Putsch, there a Putsch. “Law and order”, Republican style. “Law and order”, Nazi style.

 

Our Constitution is all that stands between freedom and tyranny, and between democracy and dictatorship. Trump IS an enemy of democracy and domestic enemy of our Constitution.

 

Let’s recall Section 3 of the 14th Amendment: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

 

The consensus of Congress and the country is Trump “engaged in insurrection”. He gave “aid or comfort” to his thugs by praising them after they terrorized Congress and beat police officers bloody in their violent attempt to overturn the 2020 election. He defended them and said he would pardon them.

 Professor Laurance Tribe and former conservative judge Michael Luttig wrote in the Atlantic: "The disqualification clause operates independently of any such criminal proceedings, also indeed, independently of any impeachment proceedings and of congressional legislation".

Two members of the very conservative Federalist Society released a law review article making the argument that this section disqualifies Trump from all federal offices.

Law professors William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen wrote for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review:

“In our view, on the basis of the public record, former President Donald J. Trump is constitutionally disqualified from again being President (or holding any other covered office) because of his role in the attempted overthrow of the 2020 election and the events leading to the January 6 attack. The case for disqualification is strong.”

 

Abstract 

Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids holding office by former office holders who then participate in insurrection or rebellion. Because of a range of misperceptions and mistaken assumptions, Section Three’s full legal consequences have not been appreciated or enforced. This article corrects those mistakes by setting forth the full sweep and force of Section Three.

 

First, Section Three remains an enforceable part of the Constitution, not limited to the Civil War, and not effectively repealed by nineteenth century amnesty legislation. Second, Section Three is self-executing, operating as an immediate disqualification from office, without the need for additional action by Congress. It can and should be enforced by every official, state or federal, who judges qualifications. Third, to the extent of any conflict with prior constitutional rules, Section Three repeals, supersedes, or simply satisfies them. This includes the rules against bills of attainder or ex post facto laws, the Due Process Clause, and even the free speech principles of the First Amendment. Fourth, Section Three covers a broad range of conduct against the authority of the constitutional order, including many instances of indirect participation or support as “aid or comfort.” It covers a broad range of former offices, including the Presidency. And in particular, it disqualifies former President Donald Trump, and potentially many others, because of their participation in the attempted overthrow of the 2020 presidential election.