Does expulsion from the House/Senate disqualify you from running again? (user search)
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  Does expulsion from the House/Senate disqualify you from running again? (search mode)
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Author Topic: Does expulsion from the House/Senate disqualify you from running again?  (Read 1111 times)
True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« on: January 14, 2021, 07:55:04 AM »

If I remember correctly, there have been examples of Congresscritters being expelled and then reelected. However, none of those involved Section 3 of Amendment XIV, which states:

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

So expulsion because of insurrection would be a bar not only to holding Federal office, but State office as well.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2021, 02:53:03 PM »

Performing your Constitutional duty as a Member of Congress to certify the results of the electoral college cannot be an act of insurrection.  If a Democratic Congress passes something this egregious (which they won't), there's no way SCOTUS allows it.

I'll grant that Congress is unlikely to expel anyone for simply being an idiot, and even less likely to invoke Article XIV Section 3 while doing it.

That said, if anyone went beyond simple idiocy to call for other idiots to storm Congress, I can see it happening.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2021, 04:00:23 PM »

This is also just a pretty dumb and stupid precedent to set.  Future Republican Congresses could expel Democrats who voted against military force authorizations as “aiding and abetting enemies.”

One has to also consider the spirit of the Speech and Debate Clause, which shields members of Congress from civil or criminal penalties stemming from their legislative activity.  It seems fascistic that votes taken or speech given in Congress (perhaps the most political category of speech imaginable) could be the basis of “insurrection” against the U.S. government. 

It's fantastic that someone would pretend they won reelection when they clearly didn't.  As I said, I don't see anyone being expelled just because of how they voted on whether to certify. Also the Speech or Debate Clause only covers what is said on the floor or in committee. It certainly doesn't cover social media posts or campaign rallies.
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