In the wake of Monday’s unanimous Supreme Court ruling, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) promised to “revive legislation” that would prevent anyone guilty of participating in an “insurrection” from running for president.
The ruling came after three states — Colorado, Maine, and Illinois — declared former President Donald Trump ineligible to appear on primary ballots, citing Section 3 (the insurrection clause) of the 14th Amendment.
“States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency,” the unanimous decision read in part — but since it left the door open for Congress to use legislation to enforce Section 3, Raskin declared his intent to do exactly that.
WATCH:
Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin immediately goes on CNN to announce he and Eric Swalwell are working to "revive legislation" to force President Trump off the ballot pic.twitter.com/QcYhBQn0JK
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“We’ve been saying all along that section three of the 14th Amendment presents a clear and unequivocal statement that anyone who has sworn an oath of office — and, by the way, not just a president but members of Congress and others who hold federal office — who engage in insurrection or rebellion, having sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic can never serve again in federal or state office,” Raskin told CNN’s Dana Bash, adding, “Donald Trump is disqualified.”
“I am working with a number of my colleagues, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Eric Swalwell to revive legislation that we had to set up a process by which we could determine that someone who committed insurrection is disqualified by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” he added.
“And the House of Representatives already impeached Donald Trump for participating in insurrection by inciting it,” Raskin said, despite the fact that the Senate had already failed to convict Trump on that charge once and no other court had tried him.
“So the House has already pronounced upon that, and there was also a 57 to 43 vote in the Senate. The question is whether Speaker Mike Johnson would allow us to bring this to the floor of the House,” he said.