The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 12, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

After oral arguments were heard February 8th in Donald Trump’s 14th Amendment eligibility case, some legal scholars voiced concerns that the pending decision could have dangerous consequences.

Justices Kagan and Coney Barrett expressed skepticism that the framers would intentionally grant a power to the states that could change the outcome of a national election.  But Edward Foley of Ohio State University wrote in The Atlantic that the 14th Amendment intentionally gave states this power to prevent a rekindling of Confederates in power, however messy it might be.  

When asked what precedence there was for the Colorado decision, the plaintiff’s attorney cited one 1868 case where the Governor of Georgia disqualified a candidate for the U.S. House.   But Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington cites seven other cases, only two with convictions, where the 14th Amendment Section 3 was used by states to disqualify federal, state or local candidates.  In the federal cases, Congress refused to seat those candidates after an election. 

Election law scholar Richard Hasen of UCLA Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project suggests in Slate that if Trump should be convicted in Federal court in one of his other cases, a SCOTUS decision ducking the 14th Amendment sets up a dangerous scenario where Trump wins the election, but a Democrat-controlled Congress disqualifies him and keeps him from taking office AFTER the election.  

We have links to these articles at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.  

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
NPR – Supreme Court justices appear skeptical of effort to remove Trump from a state ballot
ScotusBlog – Supreme Court appears unlikely to kick Trump off Colorado ballot
Election Law Blog/Slate – My New One at Slate: “A Grand Bargain Is Emerging in the Supreme Court’s Trump Cases, But Chaos May Be Ahead”
The Atlantic – What the Colorado Oral Argument Missed

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington – The precedent for 14th Amendment disqualification

Groups Taking Action:
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington,  Protect Democracy

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The post Scholars Question SCOTUS Lean Toward Not Allowing States to Ban Federal Candidates, as It Tries to Navigate a 14th Amendment Minefield appeared first on American Democracy Minute.