The most surprising thing to me, a non-lawyer, listening to this was that Mitchell (Trump’s lawyer) was arguing Trump is ineligible to be president right now. But Congress could potentially vote to make Trump eligible to be president by voting to override the insurrectionist clause. So therefore Trump shouldn’t be kept off the ballot now, because he could be made eligible later.
Murray (lawyer for Colorado) had a pretty good point on that later basically saying that any criminal conviction has the potential to be pardoned. That doesn’t mean that we should act as if the conviction has no merit.
Mitchell’s “officer” hair splitting is ridiculous.
Roberts’(?) Questions about military officers defying the order of a president after he committed insurrection has nothing to do with this case, does it?
That’s a good point. Does that extend explicitly to orders from people not in their chain of command? There’s MUST be something in the UCMJ about it.
Under Murray’s (Colorado’s) argument that the insurrection disqualification is self enforcing and necessarily instant, that would mean Pence was the president until the Biden transition, wouldn’t it?
No, Murray’s argument wouldn’t apply to someone already occupying the office. Unfortunately, once someone is actually holding the office, they can only be removed by impeachment.
I don’t think I agree with that, and I did hear one of the male justices (I can’t match names to voices) ask about it. Impeachment is provided as a means to remove someone from office, but nowhere does it say that it’s the ONLY way to remove someone.
Jonathan Mitchell, one of Trump’s attorneys, is currently trying to argue the whole “president isn’t an officer” garbage.
The Congressional angle I don’t understand.
The 14th states that Congress can CLEAR a candidate who would otherwise be barred, but that still means he would be barred otherwise.
It’s patently nonsensical. Not even Trump’s own appointees seem to take that one seriously.
That’s what he’s telling Gorsuch right now, the disqualification exists now and can only be removed by Congress.
The most surprising thing to me, a non-lawyer, listening to this was that Mitchell (Trump’s lawyer) was arguing Trump is ineligible to be president right now. But Congress could potentially vote to make Trump eligible to be president by voting to override the insurrectionist clause. So therefore Trump shouldn’t be kept off the ballot now, because he could be made eligible later.
Murray (lawyer for Colorado) had a pretty good point on that later basically saying that any criminal conviction has the potential to be pardoned. That doesn’t mean that we should act as if the conviction has no merit.
Mitchell’s “officer” hair splitting is ridiculous.
Roberts’(?) Questions about military officers defying the order of a president after he committed insurrection has nothing to do with this case, does it?
I don’t think it does. Soldiers are already required to disobey illegal orders anyway.
That’s a good point. Does that extend explicitly to orders from people not in their chain of command? There’s MUST be something in the UCMJ about it.
Under Murray’s (Colorado’s) argument that the insurrection disqualification is self enforcing and necessarily instant, that would mean Pence was the president until the Biden transition, wouldn’t it?
No, Murray’s argument wouldn’t apply to someone already occupying the office. Unfortunately, once someone is actually holding the office, they can only be removed by impeachment.
I don’t think I agree with that, and I did hear one of the male justices (I can’t match names to voices) ask about it. Impeachment is provided as a means to remove someone from office, but nowhere does it say that it’s the ONLY way to remove someone.
A Supreme Court justice making a slippery slope argument is wild to me.