George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Wednesday that Democrats are working to disqualify “dozens” of Republicans other than former President Donald Trump.
Democratic Maryland Rep. Jaime Raskin said congressional Democrats are planning legislation to disqualify Trump under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states no person is permitted to hold public office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling stated that Colorado could not disqualify Trump from the ballot.
“Well, anything is possible because the Supreme Court expressly said that the public should not have to deal with or tolerate this level of chaos in an election, and essentially, Representative Raskin said, ‘Oh yes, they do,'” Turley said. “He basically came back and said we’re gonna move this over to Congress. Keep in mind that the prior legislation that the Democrats have put forward that are referenced by Raskin sought not just to disqualify Trump — many of those members were seeking to disqualify dozens of their colleagues, other Republicans off ballots to cleanse ballots of these Republican incumbents.”
“So, this is a direct assault of what most of us view as democratic values, but you know, they’re gonna have to thread that needle, and I think they could trip more legal problems,” he continued.
Raskin vowed to reintroduce a bill that would declare January 6, 2021, an “insurrection” and that those involved “engaged in insurrection.”
Turley said that while the U.S. Constitution hands Congress the power to enforce the “insurrectionist ban” of the 14th Amendment, he said Raskin and his colleagues were attempting to “preserve chaos at all costs.” (RELATED: Sunny Hostin Hints That Democrats May Have Their Own January 6 Up Their Sleeve If Trump Wins)
The Supreme Court ruled that the removal of candidates from state ballots could create a “patchwork” of outcomes leading to an “evolving electoral map” that could
“dramatically change the behavior of voters, parties, and States across the country, in different ways and at different times.”
The case addressed a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court in late December to disqualify Trump from the ballot due to the former president allegedly engaging in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Maine and Illinois followed suit with Colorado, though the Supreme Court’s decisions immediately overruled those states’ decisions.