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submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

“I will be asking the attorney general’s office for their input,” Secretary of State David Scanlan told the Globe. “And ultimately whatever is decided is probably going to require some judicial input.”

A debate among constitutional scholars over former president Donald Trump’s eligibility for the 2024 presidential race has reverberated through the public consciousness in recent weeks and reached the ears of New Hampshire’s top election official.

Secretary of State David Scanlan, who will oversee the first-in-the-nation presidential primary in just five months, said he’s received several letters lately that urge him to take action based on a legal theory that claims the Constitution empowers him to block Trump from the ballot.

Scanlan, a Republican, said he’s listening and will seek legal advice to ensure that his team thoroughly understands the arguments at play.

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[-] Nougat@kbin.social 134 points 1 year ago

14th Amendment to the US Constitution, Section 3:

Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office

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.

This does not require judicial input. The language is clear. Trump is, along with many co-defendants, disqualified from holding any civil or military office.

[-] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 29 points 1 year ago

The judicial input is on whether Trump qualifies to be included in that described group which is disqualified. The problem with the self-executing clause here is that of course the described group of people are barred but who decides who qualifies?

[-] Nougat@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

That is for state officials whose duty it is to ensure that only qualified persons are on the ballot to enforce. Indeed, if those state officials refuse or neglect to enforce the US Constitution, they could be held personally responsible.

[-] Eufalconimorph@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

He's not yet been convicted. If he gets on some ballots, wins those states' Republican primaries, and then gets convicted (and thus disqualified) the party will have to decide who of the other candidates gets their nomination. If different candidates came in second in different states, that could get interesting.

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[-] iAmTheTot@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago

Not until proven guilty, legally speaking, surely?

[-] Nougat@kbin.social 42 points 1 year ago

The language specifically does not require any conviction. A conviction would make 14A S3 undeniably apply, but a lack of conviction doesn't make it not apply.

[-] iAmTheTot@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago

You kinda just said that it can be denied that it applies without a conviction. I think it's tenuous at best, but I'm not a lawyer. I just know that, typically, you can't say someone did a thing if it hasn't been legally proven.

[-] Nougat@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

If the amendment had required a conviction of some kind, that requirement would have been stated. It is not.

[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Sure you can. Trump is a rapist. He raped e jean Carrol with his fingers. Wasn't convicted but facts are facts.

The Jan 6th commission is enough to show he participated in an insurrection.

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[-] RoboRay@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago

It doesn't say "convicted of...".

[-] Bipta@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I doubt they put every Confederate on trial. Still I imagine there must be some court ruling for this to be the case. IANAL but a state court may make this decision and bar him from running in their state.

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 19 points 1 year ago

"But that was only an amendment and it was written so long ago!" - Somebody with the second amendment printed out and framed above their gun masturbatorium.

[-] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

The gun Masturbatorium is a sacred workshop of Cult Masturbatio of the Adeptus Mechanicus, they are in charge of "Jacking" the most ancient and revered ranged weapons. Youre thinking of the Techno-lustris run jointly by the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Dark Mechanicum.

[-] flipht@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago

And his remedy is a two thirds vote qualifying him.

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[-] SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.org 10 points 1 year ago

You're absolutely right, but we live in a time where just recently poor people could have their lives DESTROYED over a joint, while on the other hand, a president can 100% knowingly tell an enormous crowd who he knows wants violence to "go to the capitol and fight fight fight" and that's somehow completely a grey area and our hands are just tied.

Somehow all the testimony that he was watching the coverage of it gleefully doesn't matter. The fact that even ignoring everything else it ought to be a crime that he didn't ask them to stop. Oh it's all just our opinion that he committed treason don't you see?

[-] gbuttersnaps@programming.dev 7 points 1 year ago

Most of the legal minds I've heard discuss this think it's pretty interesting philosophically, but not at all actionable. Former US attorneys Preet Bharara and Chuck Rosenberg mentioned it in a recent podcast that I found super insightful.

[-] DarthBueller@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

The only reason it isn't actionable is because the SCOTUS's current concept of standing leaves entire provisions of the Constitution unenforceable. If no one has standing to sue for an unconstitutional act or omission, then it renders the provision meaningless. Which is absolute and utter bullshit. Every single election official that lets Trump on the ballot should be sued in federal court seeking a writ of mandamus forcing them to follow the requirements set upon them under the Constitution.

[-] Nougat@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

Here's the tiny mention in there:

Chuck Rosenberg:

No, you’re referring to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. It’s not self-executing. I’m not sure what the triggering mechanism would be, and I agree with you. It ain’t going to happen. Interesting intellectual exercise. It sounds a lot like my three years in law school. If you look at my transcript, you would see it didn’t go that well.

Except that it very clearly is self-executing. I'll paste it in here again for easy reference:

Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office

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.

Breaking it down:

What is the disqualification from office stated in the section title? "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 does this apply to? Anyone "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."

What is the remediation for this disqualification? "Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."

As a comparison, Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 reads:

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

If a 23 year old Frenchman decided to run for US President, what would happen? Would there need to be some kind of trial or judicial review? No - state officials would disqualify Mr. Young French from appearing on the ballot. And then, if Mr. Young French wanted to protest that decision, he would initiate a court filing, after having been disqualified.

14A S3 is self-executing. The reason Rosenberg in the podcast says he's "not sure what the triggering mechanism would be" is because there isn't one.

[-] gbuttersnaps@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm a complete layman when it comes to law so forgive me if this is an ignorant question, but would the official in question have to be actually convicted of insurrection/rebellion before this comes into effect? I assumed that's what they meant by "It's not self executing" because otherwise would it not just be up to each state officials individual discretion to exercise this? Thanks so much for the detailed breakdown, Preets podcasts have turned me into a bit of an uneducated legal nerd so this is all fascinating to me.

IANAL, but I'd say yes. Conviction should be required, if it weren't politicians could just accuse their opponents to disqualify them.

[-] WldFyre@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Unrelated, but is your name a psych reference??

[-] gbuttersnaps@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago
[-] WldFyre@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago
[-] TheRealKuni@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Don’t be exactly half of an 11-pound Black Forest ham.

[-] Nougat@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There is nothing in the text of the amendment which requires any criminal conviction, civil settlement, judicial review. If you're interested in a really detailed breakdown and argument for why Trump (and many others) are disqualified from holding office, I highly recommend reading The Sweep and Force of Section Three, which was the paper that really set all of this 14A S3 discussion in motion. It is very long, and very detailed, but it's a relatively easy read, in mostly plain language. I haven't even gotten all the way through it yet, I'm still working on it. Much of my understanding of this issue comes from this paper, but believe me when I say I'm not just waving it aloft and declaring that it's gospel. What it says makes sense.

With regard to your question about each state officials' discretion to exercise, there's another comment in this mess of a thread where I go into some more detail on that. I also made note somewhere that, because this is constitutional law, state officials who refuse or neglect to follow the Constitution may be in a position where they could be held personally responsible for failing to apply the law if they don't disqualify people who are disqualified by 14A S3.

Edit: For the record, Rosenberg stated early in that podcast that he favored Ford pardoning Nixon. That pardon played a huge part in the situation we find ourselves in today. It set a precedent that presidents can commit crimes without consequences. We had an opportunity to set a fair and equal precedent, and we did not. Rosenberg being okay with kicking that can down the road doesn't give me a great deal of confidence in his opinions.

[-] DigitalFrank@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

This is an easy one for anyone capable of critical thinking and knows "innocent until proven guilty".

He hasn't been convicted of anything, only accused.

[-] Nougat@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

14A S3 does not require a conviction.

[-] DigitalFrank@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Bullshit. Otherwise you could just accuse your political rivals of crimes to prevent them from running.

You need to go back to internet lawyer school.

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this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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