I was genuinely stunned by how thin and unpersuasive his analysis was here. It's not an attempt at original public meaning, but rather, very weak textualism that he overclaims.
He is a smart guy. What is he doing here?
I meant this as a reply agreeing w/ @jadler1969 on @judgeluttig's remarkably weak op-ed, arguing that impeachment will be invalid.
The textual argument is silly; thin textualism is less appropriate than originalism here; he offers no historical evidence.
*He acknowledges the historical evidence against him:
Sen.Blount 1797 impeachment (already a confusing debate about officers v. member of Congress, yet he was out of office), and Belknap 1876. @judgeluttig offers no historical evidence for his view here: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
It just struck me that Luttig has an obvious problem with his argument:
ALL disqualification votes happen AFTER an officer has already been removed (by the first vote).
There is no such thing as disqualification of a *sitting* officer.
I suppose Luttig would say that his problem is not the disqualification vote, but with the Senate trial and removal of an already-out-of-office former officer. Fine.
But Adler's and Vladeck's points about sudden resignations preventing all disqualification still stand.
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I made a Google Sheet tracker of the House GOP members most plausibly to impeach today:
86 who voted No on the challenge to PA's electors (a smaller number than the AZ challenge).
I noted 26 signers the SCOTUS brief TX v. PA, leaving 60 to track closely: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
2/ Read the full Judiciary Report linked here.
I disagree with using the word "incitement," because it muddles/confuses the debate and gives an excuse for a valid legalistic argument to vote No.
But Judiciary report is excellent summarizing the facts. judiciary.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…
The joint congressional session just started. Pence had already issued a statement rejecting the Trump “theory” that a VP can unilaterally ignore certified electors, consistent with @maggieNYT reporting.
But Pence didn’t read it live (yet)...
Thread. nytimes.com/2021/01/05/us/…
Here is Pence’s statement rejecting the crazy coup theory, but stretching to “both sides” this debate with a strawman: “Others believe that electoral votes should never be challenged in a joint session... Neither view is correct.”
3/ As the states are called alphabetically, @amyklobuchar recognizes Arizona's electors for Biden as valid.
Far-right nut from Arizona @DrPaulGosar rises to challenge the Arizona electors, and cheers and applause erupt from the nut gallery.
Shame on them.
A pattern that the GOP is an authoritarian crime regime:
Each time Trump has been caught red-handed committing crimes, in unison the GOP attacks the investigators & whistleblowers, as intimidation & provoking real threats of violence.
Raffensperger is just the latest target.
It's scary. An associate of Donald Trump Jr emailed a threat to go after my job with a made-up story a year ago. Then there are the anti-semitic trolls.
But I can't even imagine what Marie Yovanovich, Vindman, Raffensperger & their families are experiencing.
I kept the receipts.
I saved twitter screenshots and the email.
We all should keep these receipts from 2017-2020.
Thank goodness the real whistleblowers and public officials kept their receipts.
Justice is coming.
GA 21-2-604a1
A person commits...criminal solicitation to commit election fraud...when, w/ intent that another person engage in...a felony, he solicits,requests,commands,importunes, or otherwise attempts to cause the other person to engage in such conduct. law.justia.com/codes/georgia/…
GA Code 21-2-586
(b) If the Sec of State or any employee willfully destroys, alters, or permits to be destroyed or altered any document described in subsection a... the Secretary of State or employee of his or her office shall be guilty of a felony. law.justia.com/codes/georgia/…
The Hawley-Cruz faction & most House GOP are now "Bleeding Kansas" Republicans:
I've been thinking about Kansas 1854-59 for a while.
Let's be clear about what happens when political parties reject elections and democracy:
Violence & bloodshed.
Thread.
2/ The Compromise of 1850 & the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 undid the Missouri Compromise (see map), leaving the question of slave state/free state to voters in the territories, leading to local violence, disputed elections, & ultimately the Civil War. images.app.goo.gl/PNerRpPjGay6z6…
3/ The Kansas-Nebraska Act opened what would become Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana to a territory-by-territory vote on slavery vs. freedom.
True story thread: I met Senator Lee when he and I won Harvard Federalist Society Awards (they honored my open-minded teaching, as a liberal prof open to conservative & libertarian ideas). I gave a talk about judicial independence and the importance of the rule of law... 1/
2/ I said the rule of law is not a Republican idea or a Democratic idea, but among the core ideas of republicanism and democracy, along w/ liberty and equality. @SenMikeLee gets up & says something like, “Folks, we need more liberals like that. And more professors like that.”...