The 14th Amendment, Section 3, Plainly States What to Do with an Attempted Coup

MICHAEL MOORE DEC 17

There are few clauses in our Constitution, though written and amended through more than two centuries, that could not be more clear and more relevant to the threat we face today:

14TH AMENDMENT • SECTION 3

UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION 

"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress to support the Constitution, shall have [then] engaged in insurrection or rebellion or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof...”

The other day on my podcast I read aloud 121 names of members of Congress, all of them Republicans, who were reelected to the U.S. House and Senate last month. They each share two things: 

1. On January 6, 2021, they all voted to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election, effectively participating in an attempt to stage a coup, overthrow the United States government, prohibit Joe Biden from entering the White House and reinstall Donald J. Trump as an unelected president of the United States; and

2. On November 8, 2022, their actions to stage this coup and commit sedition were rewarded when the voters in their mostly gerrymandered districts returned them to a new term in Congress that begins two weeks from this Tuesday — unless the other 400+ members of the House and Senate invoke the 14th Amendment and refuse to seat them.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was written to guarantee that anyone who seeks to overturn or overthrow the government — or gives aid and comfort to those who do — is never allowed to serve as an elected official in any federal, state or local office again. 

Yet there has been little or no mention anywhere of the impending return of these 121 Members and Senators. 

To the best of my knowledge, no broadcaster on any network, no “paper of record,” no one in Congress has stood and read into the record the names of those who intend to come to D.C. in 11 days and take an oath of office they have already egregiously violated. 

Who in this next week will take the 12-and-a-half minutes necessary to look into the camera and read the names of the traitors who on January 6th voted to cement the demands of those who stormed the Capitol earlier that day — their demand that Congress not certify Joe Biden as the duly elected President and to keep Trump in the Oval Office as essentially our Dictator?

And if no politician, no party leader, no one in the media will call for the enforcement of the 14th Amendment and stop the continuation of this coup attempt by this mob of election deniers, then may I ask for a single citizen, a solitary soul, a patriot or a picker of fruit, a PTA parent or a Golden Globe nominee, a TV meteorologist or a clever dermatologist — frankly, is there anyone out there, any of you who spend your days stuck in a cubicle at AT&T in Dallas, or managing a Target out on Airport Road or a Lutheran pastor out on the American prairie or the woman who is pushing the pretzel cart down 51st St. or the Surfboard King of La Jolla or the Girl Scout leader in Rapid City, the County Commissioner down the block, the D.A. up the street, the City Clerk next door, the head librarian at the Library of Congress, the National Archivist, the FBI Director, the archbishop of Buffalo, the Vice President of the United States of America — IS THERE ANYONE who will stand in the middle of the town square, on the lawn of the Mayor’s mansion, on the corner of Hollywood and Vine — how about on any front porch anywhere, everywhere, across America and simply read aloud for all within earshot to hear the names of these 121 who will return to the scene of the crime, our Capitol Building, on Tuesday, January 3rd?

And although this mob of Trump supporters killed 5 officers and injured hundreds of others who were trying to protect the Capitol, this meant nothing to these 121 traitors (and the other 26 Senators and House members who voted with them, but are either not returning or are still in the Senate and not up for removal until 2024 or 2026). To repeat, Biden’s election had been legally certified by every State election head, Republicans and Democrats, in all 50 states. But instead of using bear spray and the pointed end of large American flag poles which were rammed into the chests of Capitol police, these elected members figured they could accomplish the same thing — the overthrow of the U.S. government — by simply taking a vote on the floor of the House that night. 

To essentially “burn” the ballots of 160 million Americans who voted in a free and fair election was something that had never been attempted in the history of the country. But that’s what these Republicans tried to do the night of January 6, 2021, in the hopes of reinstalling the unelected loser (who lost by 7 million votes). 

Fortunately, there were nearly 400 other Senators and House members — Democrats AND Republicans — who stopped their rebellion, their insurgency, their attempt to finish the sacking of our government, their futile but treasonous attempt to aid and abet and provide comfort to Trump and his mob. 

And now 121 of them, after their acts of sedition on that night, have been reelected to another term (with two House members promoted to the Senate). They will be sworn in two days after New Year’s. They will put their hand on a Bible and, lying through their teeth (perfectly fixed and whitened, thanks to their free socialist Congressional health care), they will “swear to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Does this strike anyone as a bit odd? Doesn’t it seem like if you tried to overthrow the government you should no longer be allowed to be a part of it? That if you provided aid and comfort to those who ransacked Nancy Pelosi’s office and spray-painted “C**T” on her wall, or if you, as a member of Congress, stood and voted for sedition through legislative action (either to secede from the Union or to prevent an elected President from taking office), you are Constitutionally prohibited from taking your seat on January 3, 2023?

Yes, that is exactly what the 14th Amendment says, ratified by both Houses of Congress AND three-quarters of all the states in the summer of 1868. 

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment could not be more clear about what to do with those who seek to overthrow an election or a government. Again, here is the exact language, with its 19th century grammar and cadence: 

Section 3: Disqualification from Holding Office

“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.”

Five days after the January 6th insurrection, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri) and 47 co-sponsors in the House presented a bill that invoked the 14th Amendment calling for the removal of the 147 Congress members who voted to overturn the 2020 election on the night of January 6th. Nothing came of it. 

Three New Mexico residents filed a civil suit against Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, the leader of the “Cowboys for Trump” who participated in the uprising of January 6th, to be removed from office. In September, a federal judge ruled that he did in fact violate the 14th Amendment and was now “barred for life” from holding any public office — civil or military — both federally or in any state.

It is my sincerest hope that Couy Griffin of New Mexico won’t be the last. 

(Update: two days after my podcast episode, “House of Traitors, Trump Tower of Treason“ and the writing of this Substack column, Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI) introduced a bill in the last week of this session of Congress, along with 40 co-sponsors, invoking the 14th Amendment to prevent Trump from ever holding office again due to his participation in and leading the January 6th insurrection. There was no mention in the bill of his co-conspirators, the 121 insurrectionist Republicans soon returning to Congress.)