{"id":2171229,"date":"2024-02-08T13:16:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T18:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/colorado-lawyer-flails-as-clarence-thomas-calmly-destroys-his-trump-disqualification-argument\/"},"modified":"2024-02-08T13:16:01","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T18:16:01","slug":"colorado-lawyer-flails-as-clarence-thomas-calmly-destroys-his-trump-disqualification-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/colorado-lawyer-flails-as-clarence-thomas-calmly-destroys-his-trump-disqualification-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Lawyer Flails As Clarence Thomas Calmly Destroys His Trump Disqualification Argument"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcolorado-lawyer-flails-as-clarence-thomas-calmly-destroys-his-trump-disqualification-argument%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2171229&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<div>\n<figure>                         <\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>By merely asking for examples, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas calmly destroyed respondents\u2019 argument for disqualifying former President Donald Trump from Colorado\u2019s 2024 presidential primary ballot. <\/p>\n<p>The moment came on Thursday morning, during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1M56LTKOHyQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">oral arguments<\/a> on Trump\u2019s appeal to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court\u2019s Dec. 19\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.courts.state.co.us\/userfiles\/file\/Court_Probation\/Supreme_Court\/Opinions\/2023\/23SA300.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">decision<\/a> to keep him off the Centennial State\u2019s 2024 primary ballot. Colorado\u2019s highest court claimed in its <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/12\/20\/colorado-supreme-court-rigs-2024-election-by-barring-trump-from-the-ballot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ruling<\/a> that the former president can be \u201cdisqualified\u201d from holding office under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution-conan\/amendment-14\/section-3\/disqualification-clause\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Section 3 of the 14th Amendment<\/a>, which stipulates that \u201c[n]o person\u201d who has previously sworn an oath as an officer of the United States and has \u201cengaged in insurrection or rebellion shall\u201d serve in any of an enumerated list of offices of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>The president and vice president are not included in this list of positions. <\/p>\n<p>During Thursday\u2019s hearing, respondents\u2019 attorney Jason Murray argued that Trump incited the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and therefore, engaged in insurrection. He also claimed that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment uses broad language, and thus that states possess the authority to include the presidency \u2014 and by default, Trump \u2014 as one of the positions eligible for disqualification. <\/p>\n<p>Contrary to respondents\u2019 assertion, Trump has not been convicted of any crimes, let alone insurrection, as Justice Brett Kavanaugh pointed out.<\/p>\n<p>When given the opportunity to probe Murray\u2019s arguments, Thomas asked him to provide the high court with \u201ccontemporaneous examples\u201d of states disqualifying national candidates (such as those running for president) from the ballot in the years following the 14th Amendment\u2019s adoption. Murray failed to provide the high court\u2019s most senior justice with a specific example, instead citing an 1868 instance involving Georgia\u2019s then-governor, who refused to certify the results of a congressional election because the winning candidate was \u201cdisqualified\u201d under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. <\/p>\n<p>Murray then attempted to argue that \u201cit\u2019s not surprising\u201d there are few examples because the ballots were not the same back then as they are today. \u201cCandidates were either write-in or they were party ballots, so the states didn\u2019t run the ballots in the same way, and there wouldn\u2019t have been a process for determining before an election whether a candidate was qualified,\u201d Murray claimed.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas, however, did not appear convinced by the attorney\u2019s arguments. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would seem that particularly after Reconstruction and after the Compromise of 1877 and during the period of Redeemers, that you would have that kind of conflict,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThere were a plethora of Confederates still around, there were any number of people who would continue to either run for state offices or national offices. So, that would suggest that there would at least be a few examples of national candidates being disqualified, if your reading is correct.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Murray attempted to weasel out of the justice\u2019s questioning by saying there were \u201cnational candidates who were disqualified by Congress refusing to seat them,\u201d but was quickly cut off by Thomas, who noted \u201cthat\u2019s not this case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOther than the example I gave, no,\u201d Murray admitted. \u201cStates certainly wouldn\u2019t have the authority to remove a sitting federal officer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, what was the purpose of Section 3?\u201d Thomas rebutted. \u201cThe concern was that the former Confederate states would continue being bad actors and the effort was to prevent them from doing this, and you\u2019re saying that, \u2018Well, this also authorizes states to disqualify candidates.\u2019 So, what I\u2019m asking you for, if you are right, what are the examples?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Murray again avoided answering the question, instead arguing there are examples of states excluding candidates from state office. Thomas interjected, saying he \u201cunderstand[s]\u201d states control state affairs but that Colorado\u2019s case before SCOTUS is about disqualifying \u201cnational candidates.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I would like to know, is do you have any examples of this?\u201d Thomas asked.<\/p>\n<p>Unable to provide a definitive answer to Thomas\u2019 question, Murray fell back on his talking point that \u201celections worked differently back then.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>   Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By merely asking for examples, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas calmly destroyed respondents\u2019 argument for disqualifying former President Donald Trump from Colorado\u2019s 2024 presidential primary ballot. The moment came on Thursday morning, during oral arguments on Trump\u2019s appeal to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court\u2019s Dec. 19\u00a0decision to keep him off the Centennial State\u2019s 2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2171230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Picture2-3.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2171229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Picture2-3.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2171229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2171230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2171229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2171229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2171229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}