Our Revolution and Free Speech for People, progressive organizations, are encouraging election officials in 10 states that current and former legislators involved in the January 6 Capitol attack to be deemed insurrectionists and unfit to serve as office-holders ever again, according to the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The organizations sent letters to secretaries of state in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania. They’re also encouraging residents of those states to sign petitions demanding that lawmakers who sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election results be barred from running again.
Some of the letters and petitions name specific federal lawmakers that the organizations want to see banned from running for office — in their letter to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRoseFor example, the organizations claim that Republican Rep. Jim Jordan should be subjected to the Constitution’s ban on insurrectionists being removed from office. The letter to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), in Georgia, asks for his approval. to prevent Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) from running.
However, all letters mention a single person who should not be allowed to run for office in the future: Former President Donald Trump.
“Trump is preparing to run for president again in 2024,” one of the letters says. “However, due to his incitement of the January 6th insurrection, Trump is constitutionally ineligible for any future run for office.”
“We call on you to use this Constitutional provision to ban insurrectionists from the ballot just as you routinely exercise your authority to ban candidates who do not meet age or residency requirements,” another letter states, adding that Trump and other election officials “violated their oath of office to subvert the 2020 elections and allow mob rule to block a peaceful transfer of power on January 6th.”
“There must be concrete consequences for these Constitutional oathbreakers,” the letter concludes.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment forbids former lawmakers who have previously taken an oath to support the Constitution from being able to serve in office or in government again, if they’ve “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. This provision was originally used to prevent former Confederates from being elected to office after the Civil War. However, several attempts have been made to revive the provision to ensure that those seeking to overturn the 2020 race can’t run for office in 2022 or beyond.
These efforts have not been successful so far. a ruling on Greene’s eligibility has been appealed.
