kalm wrote: ↑Thu Dec 21, 2023 7:54 am
GannonFan wrote: ↑Wed Dec 20, 2023 2:50 pm
Luttig has been on this crusade since 1/7, but that doesn't make him right. He thinks it's a slam dunk the other way, that Trump is automatically barred from running, and anyone can make that determination. But he addresses absolutely zero of the concerns and points brought up by the dissenters in what was, once again, a very split decision by an all-democrat Colorado court. And again, there's a lot of meat in those dissents that goes far further than just the procedural issue you seem to mention. Luttig is a cheerleader at this point, not a serious Constitutional scholar. He may have been once, but he left that track almost two decades ago.
He even says the biggest thing is to get Trump disqualified, no matter what. I agree, I don't want him running for President either, but we can't just make it up, it needs to be grounded in something real. This case hasn't done that and will be overturned.
Of course Luttig is on a crusade. It’s kind of a big deal and he’s an expert on the matter. You’ve been on a crusade since Jan 7th downplaying the significance.
Are you arguing for how the court will rule or whether or not it was an insurrection?
If it’s the latter, the Colorado SC ruled on it. Just like a court in New Mexico who ruled that a county commissioner must be removed from office for his participation in the insurrection based on the 14th amendment.
So it seems the only questions here are whether a panel of judges comprising a state Supreme Court is sufficient for looking at the evidence and determining whether it was an insurrection and whether Trump “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the (United States), or gave aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” vs. a criminal trial with a jury.
The rest is legal sophistry as the 14A is pretty clear with its intent. We should all be rooting for SCOTUS to uphold… regardless of fears over politics and retribution. If it was an insurrection, he should be barred from running.
Didn't you just champion the idea of due process a couple of posts ago? Insurrection is actually defined in the US Code, so it's not really just a fuzzy concept. Normally, when we're going to not only accuse but convict a person of a crime, that person is first considered innocent, next the government or whomever the plaintiff is brings their case to court trying to prove guilt, and then the defendant gets to challenge that case. Then it goes to a judge or jury and the verdict is rendered. And then either party not happy with the result can appeal it. None of that has happened here. Almost all of the automatically-enacting cheerleaders you've linked to here haven't advocated for any of that path. The dude in New Mexico was first convicted of a crime before the 14th amendment was applied.
Again, we can't just do anything and everything to dump Trump from the ticket just because we don't like him and he's a terrible person. Following the law, and say, trying to convict him of being an insurrectionist before we punish him for being one would seem to be the proper way to do it, that is, if due process is really something you care about. You seem to say you value and cherish it and then you seem ready to brush it aside if it means having to take an easier path, due process be damned. Your values are surprisingly fluid depending on the political question of the moment.
We've been dragging our feet on this for far too long - everyone saw what happened on 1/6/21 - we're almost 3 years from that right now. Congress should've removed him from office then and there, but they didn't. Someone, anyone, should've brought the insurrection charge anytime right after that. Or say after the 1/6 commission finished - almost a year ago now. Politics have stopped us from doing that - politics from Republicans that don't want to upset the populist mob that supports him, and politics from the Democrats who don't really seem to care about driving the train to the edge of the cliff, and maybe over it, as long as their odds of winning the White House improve.