How John Adams is helping bring down Donald Trump through the 14th Amendment
A previous version of this article incorrectly referenced the president who enacted the law, as well as the year it became effective. This information was based on an underlying report that has since been updated with its own correction.
The country awaits the Supreme Court weighing in on whether the 14th Amendment insurrection laws apply to Donald Trump as a former president.
Law & Crime cited a new scholarly paper that uses a 1799 law to show that the Amendment applies to him.
At issue is whether the president is an "officer of the United States." It seems a simple question: is the president listed as an office in the Constitution? It is. In fact, the 14th Amendment cites the presidency in the first line: "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."
Thursday, Trump filed another brief asking that the Supreme Court step in and rule that states have no power to decide who can appear on the ballot. Some experts say that position, if upheld, would cause a lot of problems with states that have their own requirements for appearing on the ballot. Some mandate a fee, others ask for signatures. The Supreme Court stepping in to nationalize it would mean the federal government would take over parts of elections it previously left up to the states, according to some onlookers.
"In a late December petition, [Trump pal and lawyer Jay] Sekulow’s first question was whether the president 'falls within the list of officials subject to the disqualification provision of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment,'" the report said.
In their paper, legal scholars Josh Blackman and Seth Barrett Tillman wrote that Trump is considered an "officer" while BYU Law corpus linguistics expert James Heilpern and attorney Michael T. Worley claimed in another paper the opposite.
The Postal Act of 1799, which John Adamas signed into law, lists the president along with officers of the United States. It explains that officers of the U.S. get free postage. That list includes the president.
“And be it further enacted, That letters and packets to and from the following officers of the United States, shall be received and conveyed by post, free of postage," the law says.
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It goes on to even list the offices that get free postage so long as they do not exceed half an ounce in weight.
"Each member of the Senate and House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States; the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of House of Representatives, provided each letter or packet shall not exceed two ounces in weight, and during their actual attendance in any session of Congress, and twenty days after such session; the President of the United States; Vice President; the Secretary of the Treasury..."
There's another reason to believe that in 1868 the president was also considered an officer.
Heilpern and Worley pointed to the presidential proclamations of President Andrew Johnson — “the President at the time the 14th Amendment was ratified” — calling himself “chief Executive officer of the United States” and “chief civil executive officer.”
The statements from sitting senators at the time further support the claim, the paper says.
Trump claimed in his brief about the Colorado case that “not one authority holds that the President is an ‘officer of the United States’ — no case, no statute, no record of Congressional debate, no common usage, no attorney general opinion.” It turns out his lawyers were wrong, according to this scholarly report.