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| credit R. Bolling |
More: A Colorado judge has ruled that despite aiding and abetting an insurrection, the 14th Amendment disqualification provision does not apply to presidents. Judge Sarah Wallace concluded that, “Trump engaged in an insurrection on January 6, 2021 through incitement, and that the First Amendment does not protect Trump’s speech". Her decision makes three strikes against the proposition (Michigan, Minnesota), so it may be dead for practical purposes, but the issue could still make it to the US Supreme Court. Judge Wallace's 102 page opinion does seem incongruous with the plain language of Section 3:
No person...shall hold any office civil or military....who having previously taken an oath...as an officer of the United States..." [emphasis added]. In her analysis, she relied on a distinction in oaths between Congress and the President that does not make a material difference.* Perhaps the state judges concluded
sub silencio that it would be more consistent with democratic principles for the people of the United States to decide the political fate of the sociopathic boy-king.
US Person has his doubts about the wisdom of that choice given the election results of 2016.
Hillary was bad, but not as bad as Don 'Legit', who successfully conned his way into office. He is not on Fifth Avenue now.
{16.11.2023}As the possibility of imprisonment draws nearer, the would-be American dictator let his Nazi flag fly on Veteran's Day when he promised to eradicate political opponents he called "vermin". That terminology is straight out of Hitler. Astute readers may recall that the Nazis produced propaganda in which Jews were called the "vermin of Europe". In trademark fashion he claimed the threat of domestic enemies to be greater than those from foreign adversaries. Dismiss his ranting if you must to maintain your grip on sanity, but remember that upwards of 40% of the American people are sympathetic to this neo-Nazi; he is outpolling the current democratically elected president. One expert on authoritarianism told a TV host, "we are sleepwalking towards authoritarianism." It seems Don 'Legit" actually read the Hitler autobiography he kept by his bedside. His supporters are already building an army of loyalists, pre-screened by AI, to fill positions in government should he take office in '24. The only thing needed now are the armbands.
Big Bavovna in Fulton County! The profers made by the co-defendants in the Georgia trial made it to the press. Predictably the leak was made by a co-defendant's attorney. The attorney for Jenna Ellis told Judge McAfee that he leaked the deposition because he though it would help his client and that the public has a right to know. DA Willis was not pleased with the leak and has asked the judge for a protective order. Whether the leak helped his client is debatable; it did inform the public about the quality of evidence of the Boss' corrupt intent. Dan Scavino, former top aide in the White House, told Ellis at a Christmas party that Trump was "not going to leave the White House under any circumstances", regardless of loosing sixty some legal cases on the fraud issue. When Ellis told Scovino, "it doesn't quite work that way". Scavino replied, "We don't care." No wonder she got a sweet plea deal from the DA!
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| credit: M. Luckovich |
* In the presidents oath he promises to "preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States", while Congress members vow to "support the Constitution of the United States". Clearly the President has a higher duty that includes merely supporting it. Wallace has created, perhaps unintentionally, an exception to disqualification for future insurrectionist presidents or former presidents. The fact there is no established procedure for making a rogue candidate like Trump ineligible for election under the Fourteenth Amendment begs precedent be established now by courts of law in this country. US Person encourages Colorado plaintiffs to take their case to the Colorado Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court, if necessary because Judge Wallace's opinion, while finding Trumpilini engaged in an insurrection as predicate, it is logically flawed at its conclusion. This is not a "political question", but rather an issue of correct statutory interpretation of Section 3's plain language. Trumpillini has already availed himself of the statutory federal officer liability exemption in the E. Jean Carrol defamation case. He is probably collaterally estopped from using the argument that he is not one for the purposes of the 14th Amendment.
