Ta, da!
Amendment XIV
Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
Section 3.
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.
Section 4.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5.
The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Ta, da...
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 23–719
DONALD J. TRUMP, PETITIONER v.
NORMA ANDERSON, ET AL.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT
OF COLORADO
[March 4, 2024]
PER CURIAM.
A group of Colorado voters contends that Section 3 of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits for-
mer President Donald J. Trump, who seeks the Presidential
nomination of the Republican Party in this year’s election,
from becoming President again. The Colorado Supreme
Court agreed with that contention. It ordered the Colorado
secretary of state to exclude the former President from the
Republican primary ballot in the State and to disregard any
write-in votes that Colorado voters might cast for him.
Former President Trump challenges that decision on sev-
eral grounds. Because the Constitution makes Congress,
rather than the States, responsible for enforcing Section 3
against federal officeholders and candidates, we reverse.
Here’s a google docs link to the entire opinion:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GfVSw80agqDr5WQAF-WVw6av_BO-AO6vo1hItfk5Cxo/edit
More specifically, 3 Democrat and 6 Republican Supreme Court Justices ruled states cannot enforce Amendment 14, Section 3 in federal elections, and 5 Republican Justices went further and ruled only Congress can enforce 14/3 in federal elections, especially the presidency. States can enforce 14/3 in state elections. The majority opinion became the new law of the land.
Of note, the 9 Justices did not overrule the Colorado State Court finding and the Colorado Supreme Court affirmance that Donald Trump engaged in insurrection against the U.S. Constitution.
Of note, in past times, the U.S. Supreme Court enforced the other parts of Amendment 14 without any Act of Congress prescribing or allowing such enforcement.
For example, On May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. This historic decision marked the end of the "separate but equal" precedent set by the Supreme Court nearly 60 years earlier in Plessy v. Ferguson and served as a catalyst for the expanding civil rights movement during the decade of the 1950s.
For example, in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides a fundamental "right to privacy", which protects a pregnant woman's right to an abortion. It also held that the right to abortion is not absolute and must be balanced against the government's interests in protecting women's health and prenatal life. It resolved these competing interests by announcing a pregnancy trimester timetable to govern all abortion regulations in the United States. The Court also classified the right to abortion as "fundamental", which required courts to evaluate challenged abortion laws under the "strict scrutiny" standard, the most stringent level of judicial review in the United States.
Thus, in Trump v. Anderson, the U.S. Supreme Court, sui juris (in its own right), could have ruled Trump was barred from holding federal office regardless of whether Colorado or any state could enforce 14/3 against Trump.
Instead, the U.S. Supreme Court made Congress the sole enforcer of 14/3 in federal elections, while the Court retained the power to enforce the rest of Amendment 14.
That is so beyond nuts that it defames nuts to be dragged into it.
Let me back up.
For a very long time, Republicans screeched states' rights trumped the power of the federal government to interfere in states' affairs. Before then, Democrats, including Alabama Governor George Wallace, screeched states’ rights trumped federal government interference in states’ affairs.
In Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022), the U.S. Supreme Court held the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision overruled Roe v. Wade and said abortion is a matter for each state to decide.
Yet, according to the nine justices in Trump v. Anderson, states cannot enforce Amendment 14/3, nor by logical inference, any other part of Amendment 14, unless Congress has passed an act allowing states to do that.
That is so beyond nuts that it defames nuts to be dragged into it.
So, what do you think really happened?
What really happened is plain as day.
After a Denver Colorado satellite radio station interviewed a federal judge about my Amendment 14, Section 3 law school exam question and answer, which is a free read at https://archive.org/details/amendment-14-section-3-law-school-exam, and my tech friend Bob’s and my podcast about the law school exam question, https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox?projector=1, the radio station was inundated with death threats, its bonding company cancelled coverage, and the station went off the air.
After the Colorado Supreme Court then ruled 14/3 barred Trump from holding public office and thus could not be on the Colorado ballot, the justices on that court were inundated with death threats.
After the Maine Secretary of State then ruled 14/3 barred Trump from being on the Maine ballot, the Maine Secretary of State was inundated with death threats.
In the federal and state civil and criminal cases against Trump, the presiding judges and prosecuting attorneys were inundated with death threats.
Wanting to stay alive, the 6 Republican and 3 Democrat Supreme Court Justices ruled states cannot enforce Amendment 14, Section 3 in federal elections. Members of Congress have the same self preservation interest.
On top of that, the Republican members of Congress will never vote to pass a law applying 14/3 to their candidate, Donald Trump. But they might vote to apply 14/3 to Joe Biden, if Trump tells them to do it.
Sloan Bashinsky, J.D., LLM (taxation), former United District Court Judge’s law clerk and practicing attorney
sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment