Republicans again ask the Supreme Court to do their dirty work
The constitution says Congress can restore an insurrectionist to the ballot. Congressional Republicans want the Supreme Court to do it for them.
POLITICO reports:
Nearly 200 congressional Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell,1 have joined a Supreme Court brief urging the court to side with former President Donald Trump on the question of if he is eligible to be on Colorado's ballot in the 2024 election.
Yeah, that’s this Mitch McConnell:
The 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which clearly bars insurrectionists like Trump from the presidency, actually contains a very simple mechanism for congressional Republicans to restore Trump’s eligibility — and it isn’t asking the Supreme Court to do their dirty work:
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.
So the constitution is clear: If congressional Republicans want their head insurrectionist on the ballot, they should simply pass a bill exempting him from the 14th amendment. With roughly 200 congressional signatories to this letter, Republicans only need about 158 more votes to do so.2
Of course, congressional Republicans understand they have absolutely no chance of passing legislation exempting Trump from the 14th Amendment. So they’re trying to change venues, from the branch of government most directly chosen by the American people to the branch least directly chosen. They’ve spent decades building a Supreme Court supermajority that shares their insatiable appetite for power at all costs, and disdain for any hurdles the constitution or democracy put in their path. Having done so, they now expect their colleagues on the Court to step in and put their head insurrectionist on the Court; to do by judicial fiat that which they are unable to accomplish legislatively.
Sound familiar?
Mitch McConnell, 2021: “There's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day … The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president … and having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth. … he watched television happily — happily — as the chaos unfolded … even after it was clear to any reasonable observer that Vice President Pence was in serious danger.”
“a vote of two-thirds of each House” = 291 members of the House of Representatives and 67 Senators, for a total of 358 members of Congress.