Rep. Jamie Raskin, the House Oversight Committee’s rating Democrat, mentioned on Sunday that he believes Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas ought to recuse himself if the excessive courtroom decides to listen to circumstances relating to selections in some states on whether or not to take away Donald Trump from major ballots in 2024.
The Maryland Democrat’s remarks got here after officers in Colorado and Maine lately determined that the previous president and present front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination will not be eligible to look on their ballots, citing the Constitution’s riot clause.
“It was actually two very conservative legal scholars who wrote the best, most authoritative law review article on the whole thing, saying that Donald Trump is clearly disqualified from being on the ballot because he participated in insurrection,” Raskin informed co-anchor Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “So this becomes a test for the originalists and the textualists on the Supreme Court. And I think all of the justices from left to right call themselves textualists and originalists.”
“The language of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is very clear,” he mentioned of the Civil War-era clause. “It says if you have sworn an oath to support the Constitution and violated the oath by engaging in insurrection or rebellion, you can never hold public office again. And the original purposes of it are equally clear, because actually, when the language was first authored by the radical Republicans in Congress, it was very broad.”
Raskin, a former constitutional legislation professor, additionally served on the House choose committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol. The bipartisan panel concluded that Trump and his allies carried out a plan to maintain him in energy, together with inciting the riot on the Capitol as Congress met to certify the presidential vote. Trump at present faces costs in a number of circumstances associated to the makes an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Earlier this month, the Colorado Supreme Court eliminated Trump from the state’s poll, however the determination was stayed till the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether or not the previous president violated the riot clause. The state’s Republican Party appealed the choice, and Raskin has beforehand mentioned that the excessive courtroom ought to tackle the case.
Last week in Maine, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows eliminated Trump from the state’s presidential major poll for a similar purpose. After Trump’s marketing campaign introduced plans to attraction the choice, Bellows suspended her ruling till Maine’s state courts have dominated on the case.
“I think that the urgency is for the Supreme Court to act,” Raskin mentioned. “But I think it’s going to be tough for some of them, if they want to keep Trump on the ballot, if they’re falling for the argument that this is undemocratic.”
Though the Supreme Court lately developed what it calls an ethics code, the lawmaker confused that it’s nonbinding, “so they’re deciding for themselves again whether they’re in violation of their code of ethics.” Given that the excessive courtroom has a conservative majority, together with three justices who had been nominated by Trump, Raskin confused the significance of some members recusing themselves if they arrive throughout circumstances associated to the previous president’s identify being faraway from ballots.
The Democrat cited Thomas specifically. The conservative justice has been mired in controversy for a number of causes, however associated to this case is the activism of his spouse, Ginni Thomas, who elevated Trump’s election fraud lies and was a part of the group at Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, wherein the then-president extolled his supporters to “fight like hell” and march on the Capitol.
According to Raskin, Clarence Thomas should recuse himself if the excessive courtroom hears a 14th Amendment case relating to Trump.
“He should. Oh, he absolutely should recuse himself. The question is, what do we do if he doesn’t recuse himself?”
