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Prominent conservative legal scholars are increasingly raising a constitutional argument that 2024 Republican candidate Donald Trump should be barred from the presidency because of his actions to overturn the previous presidential election result.

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[-] neptune@dmv.social 123 points 1 year ago

If only conservatives listened to scholars. Then they might consider a) the intent of the constitution and b) the practical implications of nominating someone so unfit. Alas.

[-] grizzledgrizzly@sh.itjust.works 50 points 1 year ago

everyone knows scholars lead to education and education leads to a “woke” populace that doesn’t put up with this bullshit. gotta keep everyone dumb as bricks …

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 39 points 1 year ago

If only conservatives listened to scholars

Then they wouldn't be conservatives. Academia and reality are famous for having left wing bias.

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[-] SlopppyEngineer@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 year ago

"If you're ignoring the constitution, it also means others see the second amendment as null and void."

Maybe that gets their attention.

[-] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 9 points 1 year ago

No, you see, for conservatives, laws are only valid insofar they support them. Laws are for the outgroup.

[-] ikapoz@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago

Lol. They absolutely do listen to scholars, and just like any other political group, they act on what they say when it’s convenient.

Federalist society is covering its bets here - putting up sone legal footholds for old establishment conservatism to use if they become handy - while doing so in such a way they don’t put themselves on the outs too unforgivably if Trump and his ilk weasel this way through this mess like they have so many times before.

[-] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 101 points 1 year ago

It's absolutely insane that it's even up for fucking debate.

[-] rog@lemmy.one 31 points 1 year ago

Is it though? Im not from the US so dont really have a dog in the fight, but hear me out.

On what basis should he not be allowed? Because he's been indicted? Or because he was impeached? Both? Whatever the reason he would be barred would set a precedent.

Are there proper checks in place to ensure that the precedent set in place cant be met by simply stacking certain departments by a sitting president? The last thing you want is a pathway for a sitting president to effectively disqualify their opponent.

Clearly Trump is a monumental dickhead, but the problem is the people who vote for him more than anything

[-] p1mrx@sh.itjust.works 57 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

On what basis should he not be allowed?

Well, this is what the US constitution says:

Amendment XIV, 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.

The question is whether those words apply to his actions, and who exactly has the responsibility to interpret them.

[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 19 points 1 year ago

If he's guilty of insurrection he should be accused, put to trial, and if convicted it should follow that he can't run for president anymore.

[-] p1mrx@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So your interpretation of the 14th amendment is that "shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion" is the exclusive responsibility of the judicial system to determine? Maybe that's a valid interpretation, but it's not actually written in the text.

[-] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 15 points 1 year ago

Ehm, yes it is. It's the text.

Laws don't say "a person who committed a crime, if the fact that this crime has been, in fact, committed by that person, has been decided by a judge, who has previously passed the exam necessary....". Laws imply a few basic assumptions. One assumption is, that every decision by "the government" is in principle dependent on the judicial system.

If the IRS decides, you're a millionaire now and taxes you accordingly, you can go to court and they will decide whether you're actually taxable as a millionaire.

Trump may be deemed a traitor/insurrectionist by Congress/Senate/DOJ or any other body and thus barred from running, but he too can simply go to court and let it be decided - and given that the supreme court is, let's say, rather in his favor, the result is rather obvious.

Trump will use any loophole, any slight formal error to get around this. So you have to have a really water tight case.

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[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 46 points 1 year ago

The US constitution bans anyone who leads an insurrection against the government from holding public office.

[-] MrNesser@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Problem is its not been proven yet

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[-] 0Empty0@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

A lot of us in the U.S. feel very strongly about what happened on January 6th, 2021, and the role he played in that.

[-] lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

On what basis? Because he committed a coup isn't good enough?

[-] bric@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

Innocent until proven guilty still matters though, even when it seems like the justice system moves at a snail's pace. His actions are coming down on him, and I think he'll be behind bars before the election, but until then there's no legal basis to block him from anything

[-] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 8 points 1 year ago

It's (legally) not decided whether he actually did.

He's unfortunately smart enough to not simply say "let's storm congress by force". His messaging was vague enough that a trump-leaning judge could make an argument that he never intended this to happen. And letting things spiral out of control is not enough for an insurrection.

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[-] BigNote@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

Just read the fucking article. The legal reasoning is pretty clearly explained. You're basically asking people to read it for you.

[-] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year ago

Well both, of course.

What I think is insane is that the question of whether an impeached president can run again hadn't been settled years ago. It's just obvious. It shouldn't be precedent setting. it's something that should have been settled a long time ago.

[-] Bigmodirty@lemmy.world 80 points 1 year ago

“No shit” - the rest of the sane world.

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[-] 0Empty0@lemmy.world 51 points 1 year ago

Never forget, Hitler was part of a literal failed coup and imprisoned, and STILL was able to run for political offices. Insane.

[-] PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world 49 points 1 year ago

Sure, but we shouldn't need a legal argument.

We only need a reasonable electorate.

[-] flossdaily@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

We shouldn't need a legal argument, but we do.

And we certainly do not have a reasonable electorate.

[-] yacht_boy@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

We have a reasonable electorate, inasmuch as Trump has no chance of ever winning the popular vote and never did. What we don’t have is a rational electoral system where all votes are equal.

[-] morphballganon@mtgzone.com 10 points 1 year ago

We have a reasonable electorate

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Trump got something like 74,000,000 votes.

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[-] TwoGems@lemmy.world 37 points 1 year ago
[-] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I said it after the weak jan 6 fallout and I'll say it again: if Trump is allowed to run for president it doesn't mean our democracy is in danger.

The very idea of his candidacy is farcical, proof that the rule of law is no longer breaking but broken; proof that our government and the tenets of democracy are in fact dead in the us.

[-] oohgodyeah@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I found the original Atlantic article better written: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/donald-trump-constitutionally-prohibited-presidency/675048/

Fourteenth Amendment, 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.

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[-] RHSJack@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

Legal scholars VS 49% of Americans, most of whom can't read a coloring book. One guess who is going to vote for the orange turd anyway.

[-] Heikki@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago

A little less than half the population doesn't vote. So, it is more like 26% of Americans.

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[-] jasonmax@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 23 points 1 year ago

At this point it should be illegal for him to even run.

[-] keeb420@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago

I'm thinking it increasingly likely that those with the power to stop him will do nothing. As evidenced by the traitors still being in Congress.

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[-] t_var_s@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago

In practice, it goes eventually to the Supreme Court which, like the Republican Party, has been Trumpified and therefore will see no problem, case closed.

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[-] jordanlund@lemmy.one 13 points 1 year ago

I think the trick is going to be, based on the other guy who got disqualified for 1/6, is that someone actually has to challenge the nomination. It's not something that happens automatically.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/judge-removes-local-official-engaging-jan-insurrection/story?id=89463597

"The decision came in a lawsuit brought by a group of New Mexico residents represented by the government accountability group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and other lawyers."

[-] nucleative@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's a good thing that it is very difficult to stop somebody from running for office.

The act of running for office, or more accurately the act of the people to chose whom represents them, should not be easy to take away.

In banana republics the new guy or the guy with the most power at the moment regularly uses tactics to stop their opponents in the courts. Sometimes the charges are legitimate, but sometimes they are totally fabricated.

Take for example the case of Pita, 42 years old, the leader of the move forward party in Thailand. His party swept the recent election and by many accounts average Thai people see his ideas as the most welcome path forward. Yet the old guys and their friends, who were part of the coup 6-7 years ago, are still in power. They have been able to completely shut Pita's party down in the courts, and despite the people having made a choice by voting, they, will not get the government they wanted.

If there was another political party in the USA that was more successful than Trump's at breaking the laws, and the American courts were to set a precedent that some opponents can't run for office given legal charges, I'm afraid the risk of politicians looking to defeat their opponents in court would become much more common than trying to defeat them in the polls.

[-] EnderWi99in@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I agree with this, but can we stop referring to every rigged democratic system and autocratic government as a Banana Republic?

It just makes people posting look less knowledgeable about government and politics because it's meaning is tied to something very specific that doesn't apply to your overall well thought out comment.

Thailand is not an example of a Banana Republic and neither is the US, nor could it ever be, as it's not a country tied to very limited export of natural resources.

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Well, I mean. There was that one time we overthrew the incumbent monarchy of Hawaii and annexed it so we could grow sugar cane on it.

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[-] Syrc@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

He shouldn’t be allowed to run, but it’s better if he does. An unchallenged DeSantis is way more likely to win against Biden than this guy.

[-] Heikki@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

Let him destroy the GOP before you bar him. Thats thing has fot to go

[-] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

That mission is pretty well accomplished. DeSatan is being pummeled by a Mouse, and Trump will run as an independent and split the vote if he doesn't get the GOP nomination

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[-] PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Ok, I get the sentiment but let's bear in mind that whatever rules apply to Trump will be applied to others. It should be very hard to bar someone from running. Trump doesn't have the support to win the general. It's not happening. He lost the Republican party multiple elections now, and they know it (well, enough of them know it). Let's not forget that Eugene Debs ran for office in 1920 from prison. He was put there under the Sedition Act for speaking out against WW1 and the draft, if I recall correctly. This type of thing is a sword that cuts both ways.

[-] sycamore@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Increasingly? The article should have a graph.

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[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

His people will still vote for him, even if he's legally barred from the job.

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this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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