by Mish Shedlock, Mish Talk:
Two states have removed trump from the ballot on grounds of insurrection. Illinois seeks to do the same. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
Blocked From the Ballot
Please note Trump is Blocked from the GOP Primary Ballot in 2 States.
First, Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump wasn’t eligible to run for his old job in that state. Then, Maine’s Democratic secretary of state ruled the same for her state. Who’s next?
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What’s the legal issue?
After the Civil War, the U.S. ratified the 14th Amendment to guarantee rights to former slaves and more. It also included a two-sentence clause called Section 3, designed to keep former Confederates from regaining government power after the war.
The measure reads:
“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.”
Congress did remove that disability from most Confederates in 1872, and the provision fell into disuse. But it was rediscovered after Jan. 6.
Is this a partisan issue?
Well, of course it is. Bellows [Maine Secretary of State] is a Democrat, and all the justices on the Colorado Supreme Court were appointed by Democrats.
Nancy Pelosi Chimes In
The Hill reports Pelosi on Trump 14th Amendment ruling: Laws are ‘up to the states’
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that the laws surrounding former President Trump’s ballot eligibility are “up to the states.”
Asked by ABC News “This Week” co-anchor George Stephanopoulos if her belief Trump engaged in an insurrection means she thinks he’s ineligible to be president, Pelosi said, “Those laws … those are up to the states, they have different laws from state to state.”
“I don’t think he should have ever been president, but nonetheless there is a view of the Constitution in Article 14, Section 3, that he should not be able to run for president,” she continued, in reference to the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause.”
“But that’s not the point, the point now is that again, different states have different laws,” she continued. “We don’t think in California that it applied in our state, that’s what the decision was made here.”
Monumental Case
The Supreme Court had little choice on this. They had to take this case. Leaving it up to the states would lead to chaos. I expedited fashion, the SC agreed to hear the case on February 8.
