Democrats are still fixated on preventing former President Donald Trump from ever winning the White House again.
A small group of Democrats are investigating if they may use an obscure 14th Amendment clause to prevent Trump from ever again holding an elected position.
“There is no serious dispute about it: Former President Donald Trump while still in office engaged in insurrection when he impelled a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol. Also not in dispute: A clause in the 14th Amendment bars any office holder who engaged in insurrection from again holding office. There should be no disputing then that Trump, the leading 2024 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, should never again be allowed to hold any office, let alone the presidency,” Quentin Young with the LA Illuminator wrote.
Democrats have filed legislation that would make it illegal for anyone convicted of taking part in an insurrection to seek public office or a position of public trust in New York, Connecticut, and Virginia, among other states.
“If you’ve tried to take down our government through violent means, in no way should you be part of it,” New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal said.
“He is sponsoring a bill that would bar people convicted of engaging in an insurrection or rebellion against the United States from holding civil office, meaning they would not be able to serve as a judge or member of the Legislature. Hoylman-Sigal said he introduced the bill this year because he saw more people who were involved in the riot in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, running for office last year,” WITF reported.
WITF added:
A Virginia lawmaker introduced a bill that would prohibit anyone convicted of a felony related to an attempted insurrection or riot from serving in positions of public trust — including those involving policymaking, law enforcement, safety, education, or health.
A Connecticut bill would prohibit people convicted of sedition, rebellion, insurrection or a felony related to one of those acts from running for or holding public office. Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, who introduced the measure, told The Associated Press that he wants the legislation eventually to bar them from holding state or municipal jobs.
The New York Post ran a story last year that alluded to this fresh effort by Democrats.
The Post wrote:
Section 3 of the amendment, enacted in 1868 and best known for enshrining the Equal Protection Clause, prevents any government official who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the US from holding office again.
According to The Hill, approximately a dozen Democratic lawmakers have publicly or privately spoken about applying Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to Trump, whom they accuse of inciting the Jan. 6 riot that disrupted the congressional certification of the 2020 election results.
“If anything the idea has waxed and waned,” liberal Harvard Law School professor emeritus Laurence Tribe told the news outlet.
“I hear it being raised with considerable frequency these days both by media commentators and by members of Congress and their staffs, some of whom have sought my advice on how to implement Section 3,” he added.
Tribe continued by claiming that he had meetings with employees from some of the most extreme left-wing members of Congress, including Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the House select committee looking into the riot.
“I continue to explore all legal paths to ensure that the people who tried to subvert our democracy are not in charge of it,” Wasserman-Schultz said to The Hill.
