Conservative Case Emerges to Disqualify Trump for Role on Jan. 6

[The Magistrate]

14. Originalism Breaks Off Here

Last edited Thu Aug 10, 2023, 07:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Unfortunately, perhaps, but it does.

When this provision was included, it was clear at whom it was aimed: persons who had participated in the Confederacy during the late war. This would certainly include any member of the Confederate armed forces or of its governments, any number of whom, it should be recalled, had been active in the US military or national politics before the attempt at seccession. That Congress could grant remission from this stricture, and did so in many instances, suggests that if a standard is to to be met for inflicting this penalty on a person who has engaged in insurrection, it is for the Congress to set. The law regarding insurrection in force today is the standard Congress has set. Insurrection is a defined crime, of which any accused is deemed innocent till proved guilty under law. Much as I would like to see it done, I do not think mere indictment sufficient to levy a penalty, which is what pronouncing someone to have engaged in insurrection on say-so, even say-so by a horde of witnesses and mass of documentation in picture and print, amounts to.