Confused: are we sure the 14th amendment is off the table?

[Nevilledog]

19. Where are you getting the notion that there must be a conviction?

I believe that is in error.

https://www.justsecurity.org/74657/time-to-reconsider-the-14th-amendment-for-trumps-role-in-the-insurrection/

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Impeachment vs. the 14th Amendment

The rules of the game for the impeachment trial present political and (arguable) constitutional obstacles to the home run result: conviction in the Senate. For example, an overwhelming number of Republican senators have already committed themselves to the dubious “jurisdictional” evasion that the process cannot be applied to a former office holder. Moreover, those acquittal-committed senators who do reach the merits have made it clear that they will seize upon supposed First Amendment principles – which preclude criminal liability for speech unless it expressly calls for specific and immediate acts of violence – to excuse the president’s actions from the constitutional, non-criminal remedy of impeachment and conviction.

The base path to victory in the form of a 14th Amendment, section 3 congressional resolution faces no such obstructions for two simple reasons. First, no matter how dubious the arguments against the constitutionality of convicting a former president in an impeachment trial, there is absolutely no such argument for a jurisdictional barrier to a section 3 bar. The office holding bar in section 3 is expressly intended to be prospective and apply to former officeholders.

Second, the section 3 standard of “engaging” in an insurrection or rebellion and giving “aid or comfort” to those who are enemies of the country are easily satisfied by Trump’s conduct. Former President Trump plainly was “engaged” in (meaning “involved with”) the process leading to the violent invasion of Congress. Furthermore, whatever the challenges of showing that a speech constitutes an actual criminal incitement of violent rioters, Trump’s statements during and immediately after the attack on the Capitol – including telling the rioters “We love you. You’re very special,” and “I know how you feel” – clearly reach the threshold of giving “aid or comfort” to the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol.

Perhaps most importantly, in the critical quest to hold Trump accountable, a resolution finding that the elements of section 3 have been satisfied requires only a majority vote. This requirement should be immediately achievable in both houses of Congress, both because Democrats hold these majorities and because the purported constitutional objections to impeachment conviction which have been advanced in the Senate are “swings and whiffs” for a section 3 resolution.

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More at the link