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If Congress votes on Trump’s eligibility, we win [1]

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Date: 2024-02-07  

Hi everybody. This is my first diary. Hope you find it worthwhile.

I don't have any idea how the Supreme Court will rule about Donald Trump's eligibility for office, but there has been some speculation among legal experts that the justices may punt on the question and say it's up to Congress to decide.

14th Amendment, Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office 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.

While it seems kind of dumb to me for the high court to give up its power to decide such a huge legal question, maybe it's not such a bad idea. Now I'm not saying that Congress should (or even could) agree on implementing legislation on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. I think there's a much simpler way.

The Democrats in both chambers should simply bring up a joint resolution to allow Trump to be declared eligible for office, removing his 14 Amendment defect, after a vote passed by two-thirds of the members of each chamber. That's exactly what the Constitution calls for and that's exactly what could make citizen Trump totally ineligible to be anything other than citizen Trump.

I don't know enough about congressional rules to know if such a resolution would ever get a vote, but that's the beauty of it. Whether it gets a floor vote or not in either chamber, there's no way he musters the needed two-thirds approval. If it does make it to the floor, do Republicans vote Yes, implicitly acknowledging the former guy is an insurrectionist? (It's kind of like asking, "Have you stopped beating your wife?") And MAGA heads would presumably explode.

A failure to clear Trump by Congress would give state election officials and judges all the cover they need to keep citizen Trump off the ballot. And the courts would be hard-pressed to override Congress on its constitutional duty.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/7/2222118/-Can-Democrats-in-Congress-help-seal-Trump-s-fate?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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