Jim Hartman
Saturday, Jan. 6, marks the third anniversary of the attack on the Capitol when a violent mob sought to disrupt legislative proceedings and obstruct the counting of electoral votes.
Among those involved in the assault were two extremist groups supporting President Donald Trump – the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers – who had detailed plans to attack the building.
More than 110 law enforcement officers reported injuries, ranging from concussions and broken ribs to shattered spinal discs and stab wounds.
While many Trump supporters resist these facts, most Americans know Jan. 6 was a violent riot and was a serious threat to our long national tradition of successful transitions of power.
President Trump’s behavior after the 2020 election through Jan. 6 was disgraceful. He fed his supporters with falsehoods about a stolen election, called for a Jan. 6 rally, riled up the crowd and urged it to march on the Capitol. He’s responsible for what happened.
His reluctance to call off the mob or help a besieged Congress, as he watched the violence on TV, was a highest order dereliction of duty.
Trump’s conduct from election day to Jan. 6 raises serious doubts about his temperament and fitness for office.
Some legal scholars and anti-Trump lawyers have been promoting a legal view that Trump can be disqualified from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Section 3 was passed after the Civil War to stop Confederates who “engaged in insurrection” from retaking government positions. Applying it to Trump and the Jan. 6 riot requires a dubious stretch of legal reasoning.
They say Trump is disqualified under the 14th Amendment because he inspired and “engaged” in an “insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. that took place Jan. 6.
On Dec. 19, a 4-3 Colorado Supreme Court majority was the first court to buy this argument. They relied on evidence compiled by the House Jan. 6 special committee.
Certainly Trump attempted to obstruct the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6. However, there is no convincing evidence that this amounted to an insurrection or rebellion under statutory or constitutional definitions.
The four Colorado justices claim the 14th Amendment provision is “self-executing,” meaning that ballot disqualification doesn’t require a conviction in court.
But Trump was acquitted in the Senate of the impeachment charge of insurrection. And, special counsel Jack Smith didn’t include insurrection under 18 U.S.C. 2383 of the U.S. criminal code in his four-count indictment of Trump.
Further, Trump was denied the “procedural due process” by the Colorado court before disqualification can be justified. The 14th Amendment guarantees due process to all Americans, not denies it.
The Colorado decision also avoids the fact that Section 3’s disqualification provision doesn’t expressly include the president. This was the first time any state used Section 3 to disqualify a presidential candidate.
On Dec. 27, Maine’s secretary of state announced she would unilaterally delete Trump’s name from the presidential primary ballot.
Maine became the second state, after Colorado, to declare Trump a Jan. 6 insurrectionist under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Meanwhile judiciaries in Minnesota and Michigan have declined to disqualify Trump, as has California’s secretary of state.
In Nevada, Trump is not participating in the presidential primary on Feb. 6 as he opted to join the Nevada Republican Party’s caucus on Feb. 8. Therefore, a lawsuit to remove Trump from the GOP primary ballot is moot.
Urgently needed: speedy Supreme Court review if the U.S. is going to avoid patchwork democracy in 2024. In retaliation, Texas Republicans threaten to remove President Biden’s name from the ballot.
By keeping candidates off the ballot, the U.S. would descend into political practices found in the most anti-democratic banana republics.
A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court should act swiftly and affirm, “Let the voters decide.”
E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.