Two Democrat lawyers wrote an opinion piece for The Hill, calling for Congress to reject electoral votes on January 6.
The lawyers argue that under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, the Insurrection Clause, President-elect Donald Trump could be disqualified.
“Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution and not the government,” Evan Davis and David Schulte write. “The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel.”
The authors cite Trump’s second impeachment trial, the Colorado hearing where the court “found by clear and convincing evidence that President Trump engaged in insurrection as those terms are used in Section Three.” The Supreme Court later ruled that “states lack power to disqualify candidates for federal office and that federal legislation was required to enforce Section 3,” they explain.
The authors went on to cite the findings from the House Select Committee’s investigation into January 6.
They further argue that the amended Electoral Count Act “specifies two grounds for objection to an electoral vote: If the electors from a state were not lawfully certified or if the vote of one or more electors was not ‘regularly given.'”
“The unlikelihood of congressional Republicans doing anything that might elect Harris as president is obvious,” the authors conclude. “But Democrats need to take a stand against Electoral College votes for a person disqualified by the Constitution from holding office unless and until this disability is removed. No less is required by their oath to support and defend the Constitution.”
