Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Amendment 14, Section 3

As pertains to this thread, my opinion that this is a huge looming constitutional issue only gathers strength. The question of whether the 14th sec 3 prevents Trump from ever even RUNNING for an elected position- much less POTUS- appears to be a very legitimate constitutional question. It really only hinges of the definition of “insurrection”. I gave a definition from a legal dictionary, but here it is again:

Insurrection

insurrection n

: the act or an instance of revolting esp. violently against civil or political authority or against an established government
;also
: the crime of inciting or engaging in such revolt [whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or against the authority of the United States…shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years "U.S. Code"]


Source: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law ©1996. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Published under license with Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

Here’s one from a regular dictionary (Cambridge)

insurrection
noun [ C or U ]
US /ˌɪn.sɚˈek.ʃən/ UK /ˌɪn.sərˈek.ʃən/
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an organized attempt by a group of people to defeat their government and take control of their country, usually by violence:

Here’s from Brittanica:


insurrection, an organized and usually violent act of revolt or rebellion against an established government or governing authority of a nation-state or other political entity by a group of its citizens or subjects; also, any act of engaging in such a revolt. An insurrection may facilitate or bring about a revolution, which is a radical change in the form of government or political system of a state, and it may be initiated or provoked by an act of sedition, which is an incitement to revolt or rebellion.

I’m not putting these forth as binding on SCOTUS, of course. But note that “violence” is not a requirement as commonly defined.

And make no mistake, this is headed to SCOTUS, and fairly quickly. I guarantee there are election administrators at every level preparing to use this to disqualify Trump from the primary election.

SCOTUS has not taken kindly to Trumps alternate-facts based arguments thus far. We’ll see.

A huge side benefit of this will likely be a clearer definition of what, in constitutional terms, constitutes an insurrection. There will be a whole body of law that will form in the coming years as the 14th Sec 3 is used by partisans on both sides to attempt to disqualify candidates. Obviously, the main thrust of which will be to differentiate between legitimate protest, even that which verges on outright rioting, vs. an insurrection. My guess is that the ultimate guardians of the notion of the rule of law (IE, SCOTUS) will err on the side against organized activities such as we all saw Trump and his clown posse engage in. In other words, in my opinion they will rule that Trump engaged in insurrection for the purposes of the 14th Sec 3. We shall see. But it’s coming.

That’s my broader point here: put this issue right square in your radar. It’s barreling at us like a freight train.

I hope folks here read the preprint of the original article created by the two conservative Heritage Foundation lawyers/ constitutional scholars I linked to at the beginning of this thread. I’ll go grab that link and edit to include it. Here’s a new article from Tribe and Luttig, linked below, that I believe also has that link. It’s important to realize the original paper is being received by serious people as very legit scholarship by very legit constitutional scholars who are presenting very legit constitutional analysis of this issue.

Link to original paper:


https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/delive...5077094093067&EXT=pdf&INDEX=TRUE

You’ll find fault in the Tribe opinion piece below. I did. And the tone is annoying. I suggest reading it anyway.

Edit: this hits a paywall unless you are a subscriber. I posted the text of this article, next page

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/a...presidency/675048/?utm_source=apple_news