(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-07-02 I’ve appreciated all of the commentary on this site, regarding the anti-constitutional nature of the recent SCOTUS ruling, delving into the details of core versus official versus unofficial acts, and such suggestions as Biden making election day a national holiday and eliminating the electoral college. I wrote an open letter to President Biden yesterday with my thoughts of what he might do to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Monday, July 1, 2024 Dear President Biden, No doubt you share my shock and dismay that the Supreme Court of the United States has rendered your actions as President immune from prosecution. They did this, clearly, in order to protect their political ally and patron, insurrectionist Donald Trump, from prosecution for attempting to steal the 2020 election from the American people and remain in power. They did this, also, in the faith that you would not abuse the awesome and terrible powers that they have granted you. In doing this, they have upended not only the Constitution but more than 800 years of English-language jurisprudence. Not even English monarchs have enjoyed immunity from prosecution — not since King John signed the Magna Carta in the meadows of Runnymede in 1215. The Supreme Court hasn’t rendered you merely a monarch. They have made you akin to a god-king. I am writing to urge you to defend the Constitution. You swore an oath to uphold and defend it from all enemies, foreign and domestic. The former president and his allies on the Supreme Court have declared themselves enemies of the Constitution. It is your duty, sir, to quell their rebellion. Doing so will require extraordinary measures, but not unconstitutional ones. I recommend these steps: Declare a national emergency. Declare the insurrection of January 6 an insurrection, and make clear to the American people that the insurrection is ongoing and has moved into the Courts. Declare Donald Trump, his allies in Congress, and his allies on the Supreme Court insurrectionists. Invoke the Fourteenth Amendment’s prohibition against insurrectionists serving in office. Invoke the Insurrection Act to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment’s provision against insurrectionists serving in federal office. Federalize the upcoming national election. Remove Donald Trump from the ballot as ineligible (as the Supreme Court should have done when they had the chance) and remand the nomination to the Republican Party, with the limitation that nobody who supported the January 6 insurrection is eligible to run. Remove insurrectionists from Congress and from ballots in the upcoming election. Remove insurrectionists from the Supreme Court. As I know you are aware, the Fourteenth Amendment provides for no enforcement mechanism. I urge you to ignore demands that officials be removed only by impeachment. The Fourteenth Amendment provides that ineligibility is automatic, and that restoration of eligibility requires a two-thirds majority vote by both houses of Congress — the exact inverse of the requirement for impeachment. Please act with the confidence that Constitution literalists would see that the disqualification of insurrectionists is automatic. As you surely do not need me to quote, the entirety of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment reads: 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. We are facing the most dire threat to our Constitution at least since the Civil War and perhaps ever. President Lincoln, when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, thereby freeing all people enslaved in states that were in rebellion against the United States, did so without Constitutional authority. He understood that extraordinary times required extraordinary measures. The measures that I am urging are extraordinary as well, but they reside firmly within the framework of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Insurrection Act. As Justice Sotomayor pointed out in her dissent, the Supreme Court has granted you the authority to assassinate the Republicans in Congress and on the Supreme Court. Indeed, Justice Roberts’s majority opinion says much the same. But you and I, as well as the vast majority of Americans, understand that that would violate everybody’s previous understanding of the Constitution, our laws, basic human decency, and our sense of right and wrong. I am not recommending nearly such a drastic course. I am only asking that you uphold your oath of office and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and I am urging you to do it with the force of law, but without violence, unless, of course, your legal actions are met with violent resistance. Sincerely yours, John Shaw Addendum: The Supreme Court has not only granted you immunity from prosecution, they have also rendered all of their previous decisions moot. They have declared that you, and you alone, have the authority to interpret the Constitution as you see fit. When, on Friday, the Supreme Court failed fourth-grade civics and stripped the authority to execute the laws from the executive branch, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, they were acting as a rogue Court. Today they gave you the authority to ignore their decisions. I recommend that you ignore any recent decision of these insurrectionists that goes against the best interests and the wishes of the American people. You must defend the American people from the actions of this rogue and insurrectionist Court — this Court which has just granted you the authority to do so. If single-handedly overturning their other decisions seems too “extra-Constitutional,” you could “put a stay” on all of their recent decisions until the next Supreme Court has the opportunity to revisit all of their decisions — including the one that authorizes you to assassinate your critics. I recommend that you make such a declaration. The Supreme Court has granted you terrible, awesome, and extraordinary powers. It is incumbent upon you to use them only for the purposes of advancing the interests of the Constitution, the American people, and American democracy. Notes: The text of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution: source: The National Archives. About the Insurrection Act: source: The Brennan Center for Justice. About Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo: source: the Natural Resources Defense Council. 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