The Supreme Court decided on Monday that the question of Donald Trump’s disqualification from the ballot under the 14th Amendment — blocking those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding federal office — falls on Congress to answer.
One Democrat in Congress took note, and is trying to answer that questions with legislation in the House in real time — even though any Dem-proposed measure will likely go nowhere in the Republican-controlled, albeit barely-controlled, House, where Republican members are already publicly toasting the high court’s unanimous decision.
House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (R-MD) told Axios on Monday that he is already writing a bill in response to the ruling.
“Congress will have to try and act,” he told Axios. “I’m working on it — today.”
The bill will reportedly be a revised version of legislation he introduced with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) in 2022. That proposal, which would establish the DOJ’s right to take legal action to block candidates from the ballot under the 14th Amendment, obviously did not pass at the time. Raskin told Axios he’s revising that bill in light of the SCOTUS ruling and plans to couple it with a resolution that would declare the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol an “insurrection” once and for all.
Raskin said he will try to appeal to Republicans to co-sponsor the measure, but does not have high hopes.
“I don’t have a lot of hope that Speaker [Mike] Johnson will allow us to bring enforcement legislation to the floor, but we have to try and do it,” Raskin told Axios.
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New in TPM Cafe: Texas v. Garland: Another Attack On Women And Democracy From A Radical Judiciary
Catch up on our coverage of this morning’s SCOTUS decision here: SCOTUS Rules Constitutions’ DQ Clause Can’t Keep Trump Off Ballot
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
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What We Are Reading
Joe Biden’s Last Campaign — The New Yorker
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Judge rejects Sen. Bob Menendez’s claims that search warrants in bribery case were unconstitutional — AP
Tilting at windmills. But everybody knows whales HATE windmills.
Colossal waste of time.
They should be forcing a discharge potion of Ukraine aide instead off this myopic mastubatory nonsense.
I respectfully disagree. If you don’t play, you can’t win. Raskin is trying to establish precedent. If he fails, he fails. I admire his tenacity.
There is no “win” here at all.
Ukraine aide is needed now.
This stunt is 100% masterbation .
I think some members of Congress are capable of doing more than one thing at a time.