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Key thing for this week in Congress: Section 3 of the 14th Amendment (which Speaker Pelosi called out in her letter to Members), does *not* require 2/3 majority to enforce: it requires 2/3 to overrule. Here's the text:
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#14thAmendment #14thAmendmentSection3
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#14thAmendment #14thAmendmentSection3
Section 3 in a nutshell: No one can be a Senator, Representative, or [several other official posts] if they took an oath to support the Constitution and then took part in a rebellion or gave "aid and comfort" to an insurrection. 2/5
But the Congress can reinstate such individuals ("remove such disability") by a 2/3 vote in both the Senate and House. That's important: the default is expulsion — the supermajority vote is the exception to reverse that in unique cases. The Constitution takes pains to say so. 3/5
Note that Section 3 specifically applies to officials who *TOOK AN OATH* to the Constitution: the People put you in a position of power, trusted you, you swore to protect their Liberty & Laws, and then you betrayed them. Hence, you forfeit your right to represent the People. 4/5
Did you know Section 3 was enforced to remove half the Tennessee Supreme Court during Reconstruction? It was wild. Great paper by @GerardNMagliocc check it out here: 5/5
#14thAmendment #14thAmendmentSection3 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3748639
#14thAmendment #14thAmendmentSection3 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3748639
