Retired conservative judge J. Michael Luttig says the Colorado Supreme Court is correct in keeping Trump off the ballot in 2024

Current ^ | December 19, 2023 | John Fea

[Nervous Tick]

>> Basic constitutional law is that a judge can’t just declare that person committed the crime of insurrection based upon so much hearsay from a sham Congressional committee.

^^^ THIS IS THE CRUX OF THE MATTER ^^^

[Ann Archy]

Hugh HEWITT’S BEST FRIEND......what an IDIOT!

[JimRed]

“There was one unruly protest at a government building, and President Trump had nothing to do with it.”

Without his “Stop the Steal” rally nearby, the ANTIFA and Occupy infiltrators and government operatives would have had no cover for their planned violence.

[JimRed]

Any judge at any level who allows political viewpoints to become part of his decisions, must be impeached.

[simpson96]

Glad he didn’t make it to the SC.

[simpson96]

Headline is pitiful. “conservative judge”?

[Dead Dog]

Legislators are not officers as they are elected, not appointed. Thus the POTUS is not an Officer. Officers are appointed.

[Fuzz]

Read his bio.

[oldbrowser]

knowing that he had lost that election to then-candidate Joe Biden.

That is the whole point. Trump did not "know" that he had lost. There were reports of rampant corruption in the vote count.

There was curious maneuvering by vote count authorities with delays, numerous deceptions and attempts to prevent observers from verifying an authentic count.

Much of which was on live TV.

[lepton]

It wasn’t repealed by the law...it can’t be.

It was modified/defined to only include a very specific group of people.

[bobbo666]

“..shall have engaged...” has been legally interpreted as convicted of.

Otherwise, presumed innocent means nothing.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

That’s what he’s publicly known as.

On Free Republic, he was regularly lauded back in the early 2000s for being precisely that.

[CodeToad]

“It wasn’t repealed by the law...it can’t be.”

Read it again. It can be and was; partially in 1872 and fully in 1898.

[kvanbrunt2]

Sounds like this guy would be the first in line for the lynchings back in 1870. One of the few KKK that is a commie wing of the republican party. The reason you have laws is so that the innocent are actually that. Due Process is what separated the KKK from the rest of us.

[Flaming Conservative]

So, this guy has a history of working against Trump. Are ANY Bushies worth the powder it would take to blow up a mouse?

[firebrand]

I believe the war in Iraq was correct. Too bad we weren’t told the real reason: that their leader was a paranoid murderer worse than Hitler and was killing his own people, the closest ones to him first.

As soon as he got all his precious weapons out of the country, we went in and got him, and then we left. We had nothing against Iraq.

If we had announced the real reason, it wouldn’t have worked.

[kiryandil]

I wonder how many times that J. Michael Luttig has participated in insurrectum with his male law clerks in the judge’s chambers?

[woodpusher]

14th Amendment, 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.

The provision only applies to persons who, having previously taken an oath,

(1) as a member of Congress, or

(2) as an officer of the United States, or

(3) as a member of any state legislature, or

(4) as an executive or judicial officer of any state,

Trump was never any of those. An officer of the United States is an individual in a position appointed by the President of the United States. The President is not an appointed official and is not an officer of the United States. The term is a legal term with a specific definition.

The provision of the 14th Amendment does not apply to Trump, regardless of whether he committed insurrection or not. There was no insurrection, but Scotus need not decide that point. All they need decide is that the Amendment clause does not apply to Trump.

Article II, section 2, clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, known as “the Appointments Clause,” states how federal officers must be appointed.

[The President] "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments."

https://www.loc.gov/item/usrep561477/

Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Bd., 561 U.S. 477, 497-98 (2010), Roberts, CJ, Opinion of the Court

The diffusion of power carries with it a diffusion of accountability. The people do not vote for the “Officers of the United States.” Art. II, § 2, cl. 2. They instead look to the President to guide the “assistants or deputies . . . subject to his superintendence.” The Federalist No. 72, p. 487 (J. Cooke ed. 1961) (A. Hamilton). Without a clear and effective chain of command, the public cannot “determine on whom the blame or the punishment of a pernicious measure,or series of pernicious measures ought really to fall.” Id., No. 70, at 476 (same). That is why the Framers sought to ensure that “those who are employed in the execution of the law will be in their proper situation, and the chain of dependence be preserved; the lowest officers, the middle grade, and the highest, will depend, as they ought, on the President, and the President on the community.” 1 Annals of Cong., at 499 (J. Madison).

The People do not vote for Officers of the United States; they are appointed by the President.

The Colorado Kangaroo Court concludes:

But we stay our ruling until January 4, 2024 (the day before the Secretary's deadline to certify the content of the presidential primary ballot). If review is sought in the Supreme Court before the stay expires, it shall remain in place, and the Secretary will continue to be required to include President Trump's name on the 2024 presidential primary ballot until the receipt of any order or mandate from the Supreme Court.

[Colorado Doug]

Whatever. So he is a never Trumper like other Bushies, so what? Some Democrat judge said the opposite a week or two ago about the District Court case before it went to the Colorado Diminutive Court. I think the the real Scalia would feel differently about due process. Let’s see what the Supreme Court says. I can’t imagine that the would abide by this.

[kiryandil]

Pinging AC because you might be in a position to remember how Luttig was lauded on FR back in the early 2000s.

We have to remember that Luttig is American nobility.

A young swarthy peasant named Napoleon Beazley [17 years old] killed "Lord" Luttig's father in a robbery.

Beazley's biggest surprise in life came in the form of his swift death - 8 years.

The system gave Beazley the bum's rush to the needle in 2002 - eight years, where an ordinary peasant family would have to wait decades to see justice done. "Four legs good, two legs better!"

In 2005, the Supreme Court (in Roper v. Simmons) banned the practice of executing offenders who were under the age of 18 when they committed their crimes.

Just a little too late for young Napoleon...