Below is my column in the New York Post on the expansion of the 14th Amendment theory to attempt to remove Republican candidates for Congress from the ballots. Dozens of Democratic members have already called for the disqualification of up to 126 Republican colleagues under the same sweeping theory. These efforts show how this theory could place this country on a slippery slope to political chaos if not clearly and finally rejected by the Supreme Court.
Here is the column:
As the decisions disqualifying former President Donald Trump from the 2024 election work their way through the courts, a new filing in Pennsylvania seeks the same “ballot cleansing” by barring Repubfenablican Rep. Scott Perry.
It’s only the latest effort targeting congressional candidates as Democrats seek to bar opponents as “insurrectionists” for questioning the election of President Biden.
We have become a nation of Madame Defarges — eagerly knitting names of those to be subject to arbitrary justice.
Former congressional candidate Gene Stilp, who’s previously made headlines by burning MAGA flags with swastikas outside courthouses, filed the challenge.
Using the 14th Amendment to disqualify candidates like Perry is consistent with Stilp’s signature flag-burning stunts.
But what’s chilling is how many support such efforts, including Democratic officeholders from Maine’s Secretary of State to dozens of members of Congress.
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) sought to bar 126 members of Congress under the same theory for challenging the election before Jan. 6, 2021.
Similar legislation from Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) to disqualify members got 63 co-sponsors, all Democrats, including New York Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman and Ritchie Torres and “Squad” members Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
When Maine’s secretary of state disqualified Trump, three in the state’s congressional delegation — Sens. Angus King (I) and Susan Collins (R) and Rep. Jared Golden (D) — condemned the decision. But others supported the antidemocratic action.
The grounds were virtually identical to those of Stilp. He accuses Perry of supporting challenges to Biden’s election and opposing its certification.
Of course, he ignores Democratic members who sought to block certification of Republican presidents under the very same law with no factual or legal basis.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) praised the effort then-Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) organized to challenge the certification of President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election.
Jan. 6 committee head Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) voted to challenge it in the House.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sought to block certification of the 2016 election result — particularly ironic since he’s a leading voice calling for Trump to be disqualified.
He insisted last week on CNN that the effort to prevent citizens from voting for Trump is the very embodiment of democracy: “If you think about it, of all of the forms of disqualification that we have, the one that disqualifies people for engaging in insurrection is the most democratic because it’s the one where people choose themselves to be disqualified.”
That is akin to treating every criminal charge as a consensual act of incarceration because the accused chose his path in life.
This is also being played out in state races.
The filing against Perry came the same day Pennsylvania Democratic state Sen. Art Haywood made public a complaint to the Senate Ethics Committee against his Republican colleague Doug Mastriano accusing him of playing a role in the plot to overturn the election.
Notably, in his effort to “hold insurrectionists accountable,” Haywood admitted he relied on the same evidence from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington that was used in the Colorado case.
“Insurrectionist” is the newest label to excuse any abuse.
During the McCarthy period, individuals were accused of being Communists or “fellow travelers.”
Now you have Stilp accusing Perry of being “supportive of insurrectionists.”
Democrats and pundits have claimed civil libertarians and journalists who have testified against the government’s growing censorship efforts are enablers of insurrectionists and even “Putin lovers.”
These Democratic members and activists vividly demonstrated the dangerous implications of this unfounded theory.
Figures like Stilp are wrong on the law but right about one thing: There are few real limits once you embrace this theory.
If the challenges work, there is no reason they can’t be used unilaterally against any candidate (and without any criminal charges, let alone convictions).
It is instantly both self-executing and self-satisfying. It would put the world’s most successful democracy on a slippery slope to political chaos.
That is why the Supreme Court needs to take up this issue and put this pernicious theory to bed once and for all.
Until the court rejects this antidemocratic ploy, activists eager to win elections through the courts will keep using it, and it will metastasize throughout our body politic.
With the support of elected officials across the country, they can then join Stilp in moving from burning flags to torching the Constitution in a fit of exhilarating rage.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.
Until the US SC rules on this nonsense, all we are going to hear is “INSURRECTION! INSURRECTION! INSURRECTION!”
Sit back, have a cup of tea, and watch our leftists friends spin, word salad, and mental gymnastics their insanity.
Had it succeeded, the actual crime victims of Trump’s Insurrectionists wing were predominantly Democrats (the majority of all voters nationwide). Potential crime victims always pay more attention than accessories to the criminals.
The only criticism most voters should have is why federal prosecutors didn’t pursue enforcing federal criminal code “Title 18 US Code 2383” on a larger scale in 2021, making disqualification easier today.
If crimes were committed against 2nd Amendment gun rights, mostly Republicans would be making the most noise. These crimes were against the 14th Amendment rights of predominantly Democrats.
In Colorado 100% of the plaintiffs trying to disqualify Trump are Republicans, not Democrats.
“In Colorado 100% of the plaintiffs trying to disqualify Trump are Republicans, not Democrats.”
Another lie by omission. Repeated so often that it is now a: bald-faced lie.
You’re the one lying here, by pretending that “plaintiff” means something different than what it actually means. There is no omission in the actual claim. You want to discuss a different issue, but you can’t bring yourself to point it out without your falsely accusing others of lying.
The knaves and fools, a tiresome lot at best, who spend their waking hours here, spewing forth animus in support of the Democrat Party, its wretched far flung ilk and the agenda they support, in their arrogance lull themselves into confidence that, once the dust settles, they would find themselves on the reviewing stand whilst the proletariat wait on lines for stale bread. They should not only be guided by the words of George Santayana with respect to failing to learn from history, but be wise to remember the closing lines of the well worn quote attributed to Paster Martin Niemoller: ‘Then they came for me…and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
According to the DOJ, “More than 1,069 defendants have been charged” in the Jan 6 riot event. Shouldn’t at least one of them have been charged with insurrection in order for the event to have been considered an insurrection. The DOJ effectively is saying it was not an insurrection and they had the freedom to charge anyone with that offense if they though they were able to prove it. It is not like the DOJ under Biden is pro MAGA. So my response to those who call the riot an insurrection, the DOJ disagrees with you, name ONE person who has been charged with insurrection.
Multiple people who participated in J6 have been charged with and convicted of seditious conspiracy.
18 U.S. Code § 2384 – Seditious conspiracy
If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
Seditious conspiracy is a form of insurrection.
Democrats should be banned from civilization as a threat to children
###
“‘Clinton Likes Them Young’: Newly Released Epstein Documents Name Late Sex Offender’s High-Profile Associates”
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/clinton-likes-them-young-newly-released-epstein-documents-name-late-sex-offenders-high-profile-associates/
Clinton is referenced in the documents 73 times while Trump’s name appears four times.
And Biden’s name appears 0 times.
He has little girls in his family to molest…he doesn’t need to outsource. He likes to sniff them. You see it everytime a kid is in the audience. He showers with family children. Keep Navy away from the perverts in her family.
All of the Colorado plaintiffs are real Reagan Republicans – not Democrats. Nearly 100% of witnesses testifying against or suing Trump are real Reagan Republican – not Democrats.
Of course it’s more defamatory against Democrats to leave those details out of the story. Real Republicans strongly oppose RINOs like Trump.
Is Liz Cheney a “real” Republican?
For some reason, Republican voters said no.
Ditto Kinzinger. You are far afield from defining the politics of others.
The same could be said of Kennedy Democrats. Just ask our Host.
Democrats are still in the throws of an eight year-long tantrum. The longer it goes on the smaller the likelihood they can emerge from it. Hubris and no self-awareness; It’s a tough way to go through life.
These Filings are part of the protectionism encompassing Those whom were the Producers* of the failed attempts to persuade Our minds that: ‘We the People have a true Democracy’ under which the ‘Control’ (of the U.S. Masses) is better off staying the present course and maintaining the Status Quo.
The STATE has surfaced and by it’s Actors Filing said Ballot challenges has exposed its subversion “In-The-Act” of coup d’état.
the DEEP STATE have taken over the Constitutional System. (e.g.: The inmates have taken over the asylum)
Producers* There is a ‘Think Tank’ Behind & Responsible for this Sedition.
Stasis of Control: (Historically – How it is Maintained)
https://michael-hudson.com/2023/07/should-there-really-be-a-supreme-court/
The cupboard of the New (old) Democratic Party
1-disqualification of any opponent – look at Obama and his first primary win in Chicago, 4 opponents all disqualified before a vote was cast. Maybe we should just require a cash deposit and forget voter signatures.
2-racism since before the Civil War. The greatest achievement that Satan ever accomplished was convincing mankind that he did not exist. 2nd greatest achievement was the Democratic Party hiding their racist roots and camouflaging them since 1900. Look at Woodrow Wilson to start. FDR failed multiple attempts to integrate the military and yet Truman did it with an executive order. Truman was not a progressive but more and old line liberal and machine politician.
3-Antisemetism-it’s always been there in the liberal – progressive cupboard and now laid bare. Obama is the epitome of the hidden antisemite and racist. Golden tongue with rotten roots. I have never understood the Jewish vote that stuck so close to the democrats who hated them openly (especially when none were around to hear the conversation). Again FDR certainly did not spur the USA to get Jews out of Europe even as the Germans were in their early stages of their Final Solution prior to and and in the early stages of World War 2. Even suppressed the intelligence reports of the massacres
4-autocratic and anti-constitutional – again look back at Wilson, then FDR (who was held back by his own party when he wanted to pack the court in order to overcome any resistance to the New Deal) Wilson openly despised the Constitution since it limited him, as did FDR. Obama’s people hatched the plans to sue the Federal Government then have the justice dept settle the case or not contest and thereby obtain lawmaking court decisions without congress.
5-long record of contesting presidential elections 2000, 2004, 2016.
Dear Prof Turley,
Yeah. As I understand it, the SCOTUS clock is ticking on untrammeled state-rights ballot cleansing in federal elections. tick tok.
Briefly, if J6 was an insurrection/attempted coup, it was the most well-advertised, poorly planned insurrection in the history of insurrections. It was in all the news, for weeks on end.
Congress has acted.
If [snap] impeachment was the appropriate remedy for Trump’s incessantly-stupid J6 ‘Stop the Steal’ rally (& I believe it was.), then the U.S. Senate which declined to convict/remove Trump for his J6 sedition must be guilty of insurrection too. In fact, by that logic, anyone who continues to support Trump is guilty of insurrection as well and should not be allowed to vote at all.
[~ aside; nor do I consider Trump’s claims of ‘double jeopardy’ as outlandish as SC Smith and the ‘ballot-cleansing’ states claim it to be.]
In any case, Trump legal maneuverings to overturn the election results failed and there was a ‘peaceful transition of power’. .. back to over 50 top national security officials, including the past 5 CIA directors.
Joe Biden .. . may not know anything and probably didn’t even get up this morning.
*Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Though wise men at their end know dark is right,Because their words had forked no lightning theyDo not go gentle into that good night.Good men, the last wave by, crying how brightTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,Do not go gentle into that good night.12
Learn more:
U.S. unemployment has been under 4% for the longest streak since the Vietnam War
The U.S. job market capped off a strong year in December, as employers continued hiring at a solid pace.
Employers added 216,000 jobs last month, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%.
Unemployment has now been under 4% for almost two years — the longest streak of rock-bottom jobless rates since the Vietnam War.
Edited From:
https://www.npr.org/2024/01/05/1222714145/jobs-report-december-labor-wages
……………………………..
Republicans must hope the border remains an issue because the economy remains stubbornly strong.
“[T]he economy remains stubbornly strong.”
When you double-count part-timers, the unemployment number is a fraud.
When you omit energy and food prices (which are astronomically high) from your “inflation” rate, your calculations are a fraud.
When you evade record bankruptcies (personal and corporate), you are a fraud.
When you ignore skyrocketing interest rates, you are a fraud.
When you evade the one thing that counts — standard of living and purchasing power — anything you claim about the economy is a fraud.
Sam,
To add, more American’s have spent their savings and have had to resort to debt to maintain their standard of living. More American’s are raiding their retirement and 401ks to maintain their standard of living.
More Americans are having to work two or three jobs to make ends meet.
According to the USDA, there are 44.2 million Americans fell into food insecurity in 2022. That is up from 33.8 the previous year.
The Labor Department also revised 10 of the 11 previous jobs reports have been revised substantially lower by the Labor Department. Of course you rarely hear about that.
And now here is the real kicker, the Household and Establishment surveys: payrolls reportedly increase by 216K, the Household Survey showed a plunge in employment of 683K.
People who rely on NPR to claim the economy is strong are economic illiterate.
says the basement dwelling “Its not gonna lick itself” troll
And yet I’m paying anywhere from 50% to 100% more for things I need.
Jim22,
That right there.
That is what the Biden admin is outright ignoring. The effects of Bidenflation is cumulative.
Inflation might be lower than it was, but prices are higher.
Chick-Fil-A prices are up 21% from two years ago and their sandwich sizes are smaller! Shrinkflation is real. You are paying more for less.
Manufacturing is down again
A big chunk of new jobs are government
Labor participation rate is lower
Iowan2,
Government jobs, 52,000 in December.
Note, those jobs do not actually add anything meaningful to the economy. Just more government bloat.
As always the details matter. Seems govt has the power to skew the unemployment numbers. Economists that feed themselves by analyzing numbers, ignore the unemployment figure. It is 100 % political.
Absolute power is total control of any man made decisions or creations. Only nature supersedes that power. I fear that is what the democratic party and the far left members of that party are attempting to accomplish here is absolute power. Unfortunately if ALL Americans don’t start paying attention to what is going on here then we will become a totalitarian country,
Jonathan Turley wrote, “These efforts show how this theory could place this country on a slippery slope to political chaos if not clearly and finally rejected by the Supreme Court.”
“Political chaos”, that’s it?
Personally I think that is a GROSS understatement!
If the Supreme Court of the United States doesn’t categorically reject these anti-American, anti-Constitutional, bigoted, transparent election tampering efforts and reject them unanimously this will place the country on the absolute edge of cultural, societal, civil, and yes political unrest. I think any Supreme Court Justice that wants to allow this election tampering to continue should be immediately impeached and removed from the bench.
Jonathan, please don’t understate the potential of this soft coup effort that’s trying to dominate “We the People” absolutely and very literally take away the voice of the people. These anti-American morally bankrupt people are very literally enemies of the people and these efforts could back fire in a very terrible way.
I see the 2024 election as being a societal and cultural disaster for the United States of America. No matter who is elected, the reactions are going to be bad, and they’re likely to be very bad.
Steve,
Well said and I agree.
Someone is going to do something very stupid, more so than what Democrats are trying now, and things are going to go badly.
@Upstate @Steve
Ditto. This is not good at ALL. 😐
Steve, James,
Thinking on it, how could it go?
SC takes it up, rules unanimously CO, Maine et all cannot keep a candidate off the ballot using Article 14.3 or .5 and or clarify on 18 USC 2383 and deem Trump is afford due process.
What does our leftist friends do? Declare the need for packing the court. Violence in the streets, after all, their past actions have shown how violent they are. More attacks on SC justices. More civil unrest. And some but not all Democrats will cheer them on, in the name of saving our democracy.
Invest in chickens, PMs ammo and your health.
Professor Turley Writes:
“And journalists who have testified against the government’s growing censorship efforts are enablers of insurrectionists and even ‘Putin lovers.'”
…………………………….
House Republicans want to hand Ukraine to Putin only because that’s what Donald Trump wants.
Surrendering Ukraine will almost certainly lead to a hollowing-out of NATO, which is exactly what Putin (and Trump want).
So the term ‘Putin lovers’ easily applies to House Republicans.
I agree; the Court needs to step in and remind these opponents to democracy that several guardrails need to be understood. One thing would be requiring due process in a criminal court.
This nation has slowly gotten away from the idea that due process is required to establish guilt, as many laws have been creatively written to avoid this step. For example: Creating a crime out of failure to provide a (required) form to a government agency, like filing a tax return. That may have been the first example of a self-executing crime in the nation’s history. This may be the only impediment to the Supreme Court providing a unanimous verdict against Colorado and Maine.
Also, ‘the process is the punishment’ has become the norm instead of the exception when yielded by the bureaucracy.
Our republic is in treacherous waters, indeed. Our elected officials, the media, and the populus at large need to take a deep breath, count to ten and quit trying to destroy this country.
“Repubfenablican Rep. Scott Perry.”
LOL. That’s got to be the funniest typo in a long time.
Yes the court must put an end to the nonsense but I ask you, how can that be accomplished when a female member can’t describe what’s a woman?
Margo Ballhere is Tom/Estovir and her smutty name is an insult to women.
The Supreme Court needs to shut this down.
The best way is to follow Griffin’s case from 1868 and 150 years of precedent to hold that 14.3 requires Federal enabling legislation before state authorities and the courts can act on it. Right after Griffin’s case, Congress enacted such legislation which eventually lapsed and was not renewed. The only part of it that remains in effect today is the law defining the Federal crime of insurrection. Trump has not been charged with that, let alone convicted. Whether such a conviction would suffice to disqualify Trump, either pursuant to that law or through action under 14.3, is a hypothetical question at this point.
Holding that 14.3 requires Federal enabling legislation would stop the challenges to Trump and everyone else. Both Trump and the Republican Party argue this in their appeals, the former less directly through the concept of nonjusticiability in the absence of implementing legislation. The direct argument in the latter is well done, very clear and succinct.
Holding that the President is not covered by 14.3 would end the cases against Trump but not against others. It’s true, but does not do the full job.
Holding that the Colorado procedures violated due process will let the challenges continue in other places with different procedures. A concern about due process, consistently applied nationally, is part of the reason to require enabling Federal legislation, but it is not by itself the best grounds for the decision.
I think the Court will avoid addressing itself to whether Trump engaged in an insurrection against the US or gave aid and comfort to enemies of the US. He did not, but the Court need not get into this, because it can dispose of the case on the threshold issues mentioned above. There is no need for the Court to invite controversy on this issue.
The Court should not duck this one. Doing so would be a grave disservice.
Daniel,
As always, well said.
@Daniel,
Congress acted w the Amnesty Act of 1872. (Your precedence)
18 USC 2383 was signed in 1948 well after the 14th Amendment. This codifies the charge of insurrection.
While idjits will argue that the 14th doesn’t say what is an insurrection or that one must be found guilty of insurrection, there are other laws which do.
18 USC 2383 does just that and since 1948, you couldn’t apply the 14th without someone first being found guilty of insurrection. I believe this was the ‘due process’ that the dissenting judges found lacking in CO.
However to your point, that’s the law of the land.
SCOTUS does need to shut this nonsense down.
The sad thing… the idea of its all fair because the ends justify the means.
We should vote out these idjits en mass. Unfortunately the next gen is just as bad.
-G
It may be that a conviction for insurrection under 2383 would suffice, as I say. But that question is hypothetical at this point because Trump has not been charged with that, let alone convicted.
The Court could also decide that 14.3 prevents the holding of office, not inclusion on the ballot. But that would just defer the issue until after the election, if Trump wins. At that point activists would rush into Federal courts saying he must be precluded from taking office. The Supreme Court would likely decide at that point that this is a matter for Congress, not the courts, but great damage will have been done. Better to resolve it now, definitively, before the election.
The paranoid, warring polemecists (both fringes, including their media surrogates) are locked into a dichotomization mindtrap — A or B and nothing in between. This escalation of use of legal-technicalities & courts in place of voters will fizzle out as soon as a viable option C appears. The country is ready to marginalize the partisan zealots of both stripes. So don’t be surprised when the Trump vs. Biden rerun gets cancelled later this year, preempted by a centrist, moderate ticket. It could spring forth from No Labels, or a successful revolt of the center in one of the majors. The journalists, addicted to covering fanatics for their compelling theatrics, will be the last to see it coming.
I disagree, when it comes to the 2 biggest issues facing this country, totally out of control invasion of our southern border and obscene government spending it’s an A or B choice, no in betweens. This is where MAGA is infinitely bigger than Trump who is only the spokesperson for these and many other issues. MAGA is not going away.
Dollar Bill,
I have noted that the idea of MAGA is actually America First. Trump just packaged it into a nifty campaign slogan.
I agree, it has gotten bigger than Trump and will be around long after he is gone. Leftist wokeism is what is fueling it.
” So don’t be surprised when the Trump vs. Biden rerun gets cancelled later this year, preempted by a centrist, moderate ticket. ”
PbinCA, one will not be surprised when Biden gets canceled so that you will have half of your wish. Trump has strong core support that will stay with him. Except for his mostly harmless mouth, he is a force moving the country away from what we see.
We saw Trump’s abilities when he concentrated on the economy, American strength, and peace. He is much wiser today, so I expect good things from him when he regains the White House. The only question is, will the country be willing to see change and vote out the Pelosis, Schumers Ryans, and McConnells?