Two liberal attorneys claimed Thursday that Congress can still prevent President-elect Donald Trump from taking office — and elect Vice President Kamala Harris in his place — if they act fast.
Congress can reject electoral votes when they gather to certify them on Jan. 6 because Trump is disqualified from holding office under 14th Amendment, which restricts anyone who took an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” from holding office, attorneys Evan Davis and David Schulte wrote in a column for The Hill.
“The unlikelihood of congressional Republicans doing anything that might elect Harris as president is obvious,” the attorneys wrote. “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.”
Lawmakers have grounds to dispute the vote if electors were “not lawfully certified” or if the vote was “not regularly given,” they claim.
“A vote for a candidate disqualified by the Constitution is plainly in accordance with the normal use of words ‘not regularly given,’” the attorneys argued, writing that disqualification for insurrection is “no different from disqualification based on other constitutional requirements such as age, citizenship from birth and 14 years’ residency in the United States.”
“To make an objection under the Count Act requires a petition signed by 20 percent of the members of each House,” they continued. “If the objection is sustained by majority vote in each house, the vote is not counted and the number of votes required to be elected is reduced by the number of disqualified votes. If all votes for Trump were not counted, Kamala Harris would be elected president.”
The Supreme Court rejected Colorado’s attempt to remove Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot in February. The majority held that Congress must pass legislation in order to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Colorado was one of multiple states that attempted to remove Trump from the ballot early on in the election.
Several top Democrats told Politico on Thursday that they do not intend to object to Trump’s win.
“I think you’re going to have a pretty sort of normal transfer, and I think we will respect the wishes of the American people … in contrast to what happened January 6, 2021,” Democratic New York Rep. Joe Morelle told Politico.
Even Democrats who lodged objections to Trump’s electors in 2017 have said they will not repeat the act this year, according to Politico.
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