A POST NOT ABOUT MUSIC

WHY THE LAW STILL BARS TRUMP FROM HOLDING ANY OFFICE

Please forgive me for making this particular post about a non-musical subject; but this week even music cannot soothe my mind. This is free because I want to shout it from the housetops.

The two pillars of American government are democracy and the Rule of Law. Pure democracy is unattainable and cannot exist apart from adherence to law. In the United States, the highest law of the land is, with both its original content and all of its amendments (as provided for by the Founders), the Constitution. For purposes of this article, the words “Law” and “Constitution” will be treated effectively as synonymous due to the subject matter.

Here is the entirety of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

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The commonly believed, but incorrect view, is that the Supreme Court has already ruled on the Colorado State Supreme Court decision that Donald Trump is an adjudicated insurrectionist against the United States. In fact, no, they did not rule on that. They ruled in way that skirted around that question entirely. The effect of their decision was only that no single state can decide to exclude an adjudicated insurrectionist; and that ruling applies only to primary ballots, not election ballots. This means that the current legal status of Donald Trump is that he is an adjudicated insurrectionist, which is binding everywhere in the country for the same reason that a felon found guilty of a crime in any state or territory is a felon no matter where he goes.

This is especially binding inasmuch as Judge Sarah B. Wallace was the first Colorado judge to rule, and her 102-page ruling was strictly on the basis of the evidence. This means that the only legally binding decision in any court concerning the question of Donald Trump’s criminal role in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, is that he was found guilty. Colorado, however, was not the jurisdiction empowered to punish him for the crime; that case was pending in Federal Court in Washington DC, where, technically, it is pending even now all these months later due only to the judicial corruption by which the United States Supreme Court purposely obstructed justice (normally a crime) simply by, without reasonable cause, delaying a case that should have proceeded to a conclusion several months ago. That would have spared us the grief of so much that has followed, and, as we know, it was judicial corruption that caused the other federal case, the stolen documents case, to be delayed in Florida.

When the Supreme Court in Colorado heard the appeal on December 19, 2023, they found no basis in law to overturn Judge Wallace’s decision, which, at the time, resulted in Colorado preparing a primary ballot that excluded Trump. On March 3, 2024, after hearing arguments that the Justices restricted in scope to the question of a single state making decisions about primary ballots, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled in favor of the Plaintiff in Trump vs. Anderson, that is, his appeal against the Colorado Supreme Court ruling. But, again, the full effect of that SCOTUS ruling was limited to nothing more than a decision about Trump’s name on a primary ballot. It was not a ruling that overturned the decision handed down by Judge Wallace at the beginning of the whole story. Donald Trump’s legal standing remains: He is an Adjudicated Insurrectionist against the United States. And, in September, his legal status received yet another designation. He is now a convicted felon because of thirty-four counts in the State of New York.

TRUMP IS DISQUALIFIED AND ONLY CONGRESS HAS JURISCIDTION

Aside from all of this making the United States both a laughingstock and horror in the eyes of the whole world, including our allies, we have a legal fact on the ground, a reality from which we cannot simply turn our eyes. Trump cannot, by law, hold any office anywhere in the United States. Furthermore, as Judge J. Michael Luttig has pointed out: this is because that portion of the fourteenth amendment is “A self-executing clause.” It requires no court hearing of any kind, even though a court decision in Colorado, as upheld by that state’s Supreme Court, has added to the weight of the relevance of this self-executing clause, a finding of fact that has not been overturned, and that is, therefore, still binding. In other words, it is nice to have the courts agree, but not necessary. Trump is disqualified pure and simple, as is, concerning the Presidency, every person not born a citizen of the United States and every person under the age of thirty-five.

But Trump has recourse. He can be granted an exemption. Once again, here is the final sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3:

But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

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So, the legal reality is this: The current President, Joseph Biden, must use his authority, or members of Congress from each house, must propose, to give Donald Trump his one and only opportunity to take office legally - not just the presidency, but any office. The courts, even the United States Supreme Court, have no jurisdiction to decide anything in this matter because of the Separation of Powers. Someone in each house of Congress must propose to grant Donald Trump an exemption from what the law clearly requires. Unless a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress vote to “remove such a disability” Donald Trump cannot, legally, become the President of the United States. Furthermore, no matter how unpleasant this hard legal requirement may feel to many, and no matter how much it may spoil the desire of some Democrats to appear to have the high moral ground after what happened in January of 2021, the problem is that the law provides no option. As I said, our Constitutional Republic stands erect by two pillars: Democracy and the Rule of Law. These two pillars provide reciprocal protection. So, on Election Day we heard from democracy. Well, that is very important. But we must now hear from the law.

I have no illusions about the almost certain illegal problem that Donald Trump will be given the power of the presidency as a political reality. BUT: Legally, Constitutionally, he cannot hold any political or military office, state, local, or federal, without a two-thirds vote in both Houses of Congress granting him an exception. Again, not the courts, but only Congress, and only by a two-thirds majority vote. Historians are convinced that Chester Arthur was actually born a Canadian, so that means that Trump would be the second man to have the political power of the office even though it is a legal fact that he would have no authority. How do we live with that? My plan to resist, assuming no one with the proper authority will have either the understanding or the courage to take action, maybe not even the courage to say anything, is to refuse to call Donald Trump the President of the United States. I plan to go on using the only titles to which he is legally entitled, those being Former President, Adjudicated Insurrectionist, and Convicted Felon.

(Next time I plan to be musical again.)