Donald Trump and the 14th Amendment – It has been suggested elsewhere that various state secretaries of state are improperly conspiring to keep Donald Trump off of the ballot under the guise of the 14th amendment.
The 14th amendment means what it plainly says, that: 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…
That means that this is just one of the qualifications or disqualifications that are routinely decided by the authority within a state that determines whether a proposed candidate may be placed on the ballot. It would be no different if a proposed candidate were to be disqualified because they did not meet the age requirement for holding office. The state election authority would make a determination of whether the candidate was disqualified, which the candidate would have the ability to challenge in a court of law.
Wouldn’t it make sense for various secretaries of state to, once a candidate was proposed to be placed on a public ballot, for them to openly state their intention to keep that candidate off the ballot if they thought the candidate was disqualified – to give the candidate ample time to have it determined in court that as a mater of law that they are not disqualified?
That would hardly seem to be a conspiracy. Of course, the way around this would be to not support the proposed candidacy of someone likely to be determined by a state secretary of state, and upheld by a court, to have engaged in an insurrection against the United States while in office. – David Searles
Categories: Opinion
Countless voices want him found guilty without a proper hearing. The arguments offered simply ignore Due Process.
He’s done plenty of wrong in the past. That is beside the point.
What happened to due process in our legal system, and innocent until proven
guilty, when you fear someone as much as the left fears DJT, they will do and
say anything to stay in power, DJT has his faults but all these sham charges
just doesn’t add up, if DJT is guilty, then ninety percent of elected officials in DC
should be sitting in a cell, and the current President feckless Joe, and most of his
corrupt administration should all be wearing orange jumpsuits !!
You talk about election interference, it shows they fear DJT and yes he may
be rude and crass, but JRB is just corrupt beyond compare, and you talk about
election interference, all this shows is they fear DJT as he will expose all the
corruption within DC………………………………..and there is plenty !!!
Insurrection, sedition, and treason are specific crimes. None of which Trump was charged with let alone convicted of.
Re: 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…
This applies more towards the criminal Communist/Progressive state legislators of Vermont who constantly violate their oaths of office every time they pass unconstitutional laws. Not following the Constitution after you took an oath to it is insurrection, sedition and treason. It is perjury under the Vermont constitution. They all should be charged as such and removed from any and all ballots to run for state office.
VERMONT CONSTITUTION
Text of Section 56:
Oaths of Allegiance and Office
Every officer, whether judicial, executive, or military, in authority under this State, before entering upon the execution of office, shall take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation of allegiance to this State, (unless the officer shall produce evidence that the officer has before taken the same) and also the following oath or affirmation of office, except military officers, and such as shall be exempted by the Legislature.
The Oath or Affirmation of Allegiance
You do solemnly swear (or affirm) that you will be true and faithful to the State of Vermont and that you will not, directly or indirectly, do any act or thing injurious to the Constitution or Government thereof. (If an affirmation) Under the pains and penalties of perjury.
The Oath or Affirmation of Office
You do solemnly swear (or affirm) that you will faithfully execute the office of ____ for the ____ of ____ and will therein do equal right and justice to all persons, to the best of your judgment and ability, according to law. (If an oath) So help you God. (If an affirmation) Under the pains and penalties of perjury.
“In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.”
Benjamin Franklin’s Speech at the Constitutional Convention
Monday, September 17, 1787
Administrative determinations, such as an election official’s deciding whether a person meets the constitutional and statutory qualifications for an office they may seek, are not determinations which require the opportunity for a PRIOR due process proceeding to challenge it. As the above article points out, if an election official determines someone does not meet the qualifications of a particular office, that person has the opportunity to challenge in court AFTER the fact. It would be similar to going to the clerk’s office to register your dog. If you cannot show the dog is up-to-date with its rabies vaccination, the clerk cannot issue the license. If you disagree, the law provides an opportunity to challenge the determination after the fact. The wheels of government would grind to a halt if every administrative determination had to be PRECEDED by the opportunity for a due process hearing.
The fact that participation in an insurrection may be a separate crime is beside the point. The constitution does not require a criminal conviction (based upon admissible proof beyond a reasonable doubt) for the disqualification to apply. A person may be civilly responsible, decided at a much lower standard of proof, for something which could form the basis of a criminal charge, even if they were acquitted of such criminal charge, such as O.J. Simpson being held civilly responsible for his wife’s death even though he was acquitted of her murder.
The main point I wanted to get across is that, not everything we disagree with and even think is wrong, is a conspiracy or an indication of a lack of basic integrity of our system of laws.
I hope these explanations have been helpful. I thank the editor for publishing the cometary.
Mr. Searles,
Instead of hiding behind your warped interpretation of the constitution and January 6th, why don’t you just come clean and be honest? Your writing here and on other articles as well, clearly reveals your disdain and hatred for Donald Trump.
Please face reality. You clearly have a case of Trump Derangement Syndrome where your hate for the man has taken over and doesn’t allow you the ability to think clearly or discern justly.
Your condition joins you together with the same mental illness as all those who have been trying to use our legal system to prosecute Trump for political purposes since 2016.
This is NOT justice. It’s Political Tyranny and Corruption.
This will put your absurd suggestion to bed early.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/08/31/trump-isnt-disqualified-holding-office-14th-amendment/
States do not have the power to add qualifications for the constitutional requirements for federal office, specifically the presidency. Making up your reasons for this article shows your deep hatred of the man. Liberals are always reading facts into the constitution that aren’t there. This is a just another example.
If any of the above-mentioned disqualifications for public office within the capacities mentioned were properly imposed – it would be Joe Biden and many of his (i.e.: Obama’s) administrative picks who would have looooong been banished & Biden would be sitting in either a jail cell mumbling about his torrid days in rough & tough Garden City, Long Island NY, er, I mean Scranton………or standing on a firing line.
Biden and each & every one of his bio-terrorist puppeteers are traitors to the USA and need to be dealt with according.
In the meantime, I’ll repeat verbatim President Donald Trump’s parting words to his small group of supporters in D.C. on January 6th who were there to protest and seek redress for the glaring and indisputable fraudulent 2020 election: “I KNOW THAT EVERYONE HERE WILL SOON BE MARCHING OVER TO THE CAPITAL BUILDING TO PEACEFULLY AND PATRIOTICALLY MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD TODAY….” Challenging an election clearly fraught with fraud and interference is NOT illegal, but it is every true American’s OBLIGATION.
Change your channel, Searles. And based on your age, try to remember some of those history lessons taught to you in Beacon, NY.
By my reading of the 14th Amendment, rather than disqualifying Trump from future ballots, it would appear that we should instead be disqualifying the FBI.
In the final analysis, it will be the SCOTUS that decides our combined fate – and the sooner they consider these cases, the sooner we can get on with whatever comes next.
And it’s the prospect of what will come next that concerns me.
Nonetheless, bring it on. Time is a wasting. I know that whatever happens, I’ll deal with it the way I see best. Not the way someone tries to force me to be.
All of this is once more another attempt to narrow down the candidates, so we only have a choice to vote for their candidate(s) or their candidate(s). Larry Elder, no voice, left out of the Republican Debate, Perry Johnson, no voice, left out of the Republican debate. They don’t get it yet the people are not falling for it.
Ron DeSantis after a two-hour debate raises 1 million dollars.
Donald Trump after a less than two-hour arrest and mug shot raises 7.1 million dollars.
“We know no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it”.
George Orwell
So Humpty Dumpty (pace Lewis Carroll) and some partisanly minded Secretary of State define “Insurrection” to mean whatever they say it means — and deprive voters of their choice. Neat. As Benjamin Franklin noted, we have a Republic if we can keep it.
How does anyone or any group have an insurrection without firearms, forced confinement, a conspiracy of the group to take over the government. What took place on January 6 if it had come to that would have happened if the electors were disqualified required the congress to take up the matter of the election. They would have followed the constitution, and the election would have been voted on in the house of representatives. How does that equate to an insurrection? The democratic administration has turned into the mafia. These so-called crimes committed by Trump are charged by state DAs and are state laws that were not considered by the DOJ until Joe Biden’s connection and crimes committed by him and his son were discovered as being hidden by the FBI and the DOJ. All of these people involved in this sham should be disbarred and brought up on charges of abuse of power and any other crimes they have committed to persecute one man while the country is awash in crime and illegal aliens. This is a farse and shows just who and what these democrats are. And the 240,000 Vermonters, our governor and all the republican RINOs brought this to you. They are mot going to win!!!!!
It seems to me that we have this pesky little thing called due process…except in Trumps case