Days after the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Donald Trump supporters intent on overturning Trump’s election loss, freshman Rep. Cori Bush of St. Louis introduced her first piece of legislation, which called for the expulsion from Congress of any member shown to have colluded with that effort.
Though Bush’s resolution isn’t in legal force today, it makes a constitutional argument that deserves renewed attention: The 14th Amendment, approved in the wake of the Civil War, specifies that members of Congress who engage in “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States or give “aid and comfort” to its enemies cannot hold seats in Congress.
Those old standards could prove newly relevant, with new reporting suggesting evidence that multiple Republican House members helped lay groundwork for the attack. If the pending House probe confirms it, then both common sense and the Constitution dictate those members must go.
