The Atlantic: The Constitution Prohibits Trump From Ever Being President Again – J. Michael Luttig and Laurence Tribe give an overview of how Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids holding office by former office holders who then participate in insurrection or rebellion (see also this recent paper on this subject). Sounds good to me!
Politics
There are 192 posts filed in Politics (this is page 13 of 20).
Queens man indicted for the fourth time
No updates from the Queens Eagle (only covered the first time), so here we go!
CNN: Trump indicted in Georgia 2020 election subversion probe
MSNBC: Read the indictment
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Copying of election data brings conspiracy charges
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Trump, 18 others indicted for trying to overthrow 2020 Georgia election
JustSecurity.org: What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Trump Trial in Fulton County, GA
CNN: Read the annotated indictment
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Complete coverage on Georgia grand jury and indictment
The Bulwark Newsletter: What’s new in the latest Trump indictment
Queens man indicted for third time
Again, it seems like the Queens Eagle (which covered Trump’s first indictment) is passing again on this topic, so I am covering it here.
CNN: Donald Trump has been indicted in second time in two months for attempts to overturn the 2020 election
CNN: Live news coverage on August 1, 2023, the date the indictment was made public
CNN: Read the indictment
CNN: Annotated version of indictment with links to other material
CNN: Live coverage of Trump’s arraignment on August 3, 2023
CNN: Latest coverage on August 4, 2023
CNN: Who are the co-conspirators mentioned in the Trump indictment?
CNN: Trump’s surreal arraignment day in Washington augurs ominous days ahead
CNN: Hub for info/reporting on all criminal indictments for Trump
Court Listener: Follow the filings on the January 6 indictment
Slate: Jack Smith case is prosecutorial masterpiece
Slate: US v. Trump will be the most important case in our nation’s history (Richard Hasen)
TPM: John Eastman reiterates support for full insurrection
Election Law Blog: Lawyers for Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss: Rudy Giuliani Has Not Contested Civil Conspiracy Charge with Donald Trump and Others to Defame Them Regarding False Claims of 2020 Election Fraud in Georgia (link to filing)
Queens man indicted again
I have been waiting for the Queens Eagle newspaper to run this story (covered the first indictment), but they have not, so I am backfilling here….
CNN summary of reaction to the indictment (June 14, 2023)
Trump indictment in annotated form (CNN)
CNN summary of coverage through June 16th, 2023
The will of the majority
There have been a number of instances of the majority party in different states taking action against minority party representatives (Montana, Tennessee). In these instances, the minority party representatives tried to voice opinions that were at odds with the majority party, and were silenced for it. In other states, minority party representation is hobbled by gerrymandering and voter suppression. Even with majority rule, there should be minority rights:
“Minorities — whether as a result of ethnic background, religious belief, geographic location, income level, or simply as the losers in elections or political debate — enjoy guaranteed basic human rights that no government, and no majority, elected or not, should remove.”
“Among the basic human rights that any democratic government must protect are freedom of speech and expression; freedom of religion and belief; due process and equal protection under the law; and freedom to organize, speak out, dissent, and participate fully in the public life of their society.”
Where were you when Trump was indicted?
I was checking my email between 2:50pm and 3:00 pm on Friday, March 30, 2023. I got an email alert from the New York Times:
I then went to check CNN:
This was followed by the headline I predicted months ago:
Confirmed also by NBC News:
Hopefully, now that New York has gotten the ball rolling, the US DOJ and Fulton County, GA can release their indictments soon…
Remembrance of the 2nd anniversary of the January 6th Insurrection
Two years ago today, Donald Trump sent a mob to the US Capitol to disrupt the counting of the Electoral College votes and attempt to have Donald Trump named the winner of the 2020 presidential election. We did not know then that this was the final step of a coup-conspiracy to keep Donald Trump as president. I was at my laptop computer, watching the events of the day on C-SPAN, thinking this was going to be the final step to take for the election of Joe Biden as president. Instead, a horrifying set of events unfolded where our democracy hung in the balance. In the end, the rioters left, and the counting of the electoral votes was completed. I have a liveblog that I created that day, it is still amazing to me the comments of the senators and congressmen/women who tried to protest the results of the election. The work of the House January 6th committee has documented what led up to the events of January 6th. In the published version of the report from HarperCollins, MSNBC legal correspondent contributed a foreward describing the eight crimes of this coup-conspiracy (parts of this are available as a podcast and a Substack newsletter, and discussed on the Brian Lehrer Daily Politics podcast).
Last year, there was a ceremony at the Capitol where the only Republicans in attendance were Liz Cheney and her father, Dick Cheney. Today, the House Democrats met on the steps of the Capitol in remembrance of this event, with one Republican attendee.
Joe Biden gave a speech and awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal to individuals who helped keep that election safe.
A remembrance rally was held in Washington DC:
Let us not forget, so that this cannot ever happen again…
What deserves the label “conservative”?
Frank McPherson continues exploring the use of the terms “conservative” and “liberal”, looking at the current makeup of the Supreme Court, and discussing recent court cases that infringe on the liberty of the people. An interesting article was published on The Federalist web site, putting forward the idea that “conservatives” should stop calling themselves conservatives because of changes in our culture, and should think of themselves as revolutionaries. I disagree with The Federalist – I think many of the people referred to in the article are seeking to attack and hurt our democracy. One last interesting observation on terms of speech – a recent podcast I listened to hosted by Vicki Robin described “category disruption” to not let “conservatives” be the sole definers of the term:
From the transcript: “Vicki Robin: Totally. I think another thing listening to you, I think is sort of like a tool we can use is category disruption. For example I’m conservative, I want to conserve nature. I want to conserve relationships. I want to conserve meaning. I want to, you know, I want to conserve intact ecosystems. I’m conservative. So I’m gonna take it. I’ll take conservative, I’ve got it now, you know, and so but I’m liberal because I think, you know, there is no no particular group has a, you know, a purchase on the truth. We’re finding truths together. We’re evolving. You know, it’s like I’m pro life. I want every child to have enough food and security, etc. You know, it’s like we have to be courageous and category mixing.”
Some good points by Frank McPherson on the state of our republic.
Goodbye Liz Truss! Please don’t bring back Boris Johnson…