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The Latest Breaking News from Michael McConnell

SCOTUS "road map" to prosecute Trump

Special counsel has "more than enough incriminating evidence" to move forward if he cuts official acts from charges

Salon

Prof. Michael McConnell: "'Narrow' or 'Sweeping'—What Does Originalist Evidence Have to Say?"

I'm delighted to pass along this item from Prof. McConnell (Stanford), one of the leading American originalist scholars: I most often agree with my good friends and casebook co-authors Will Baude and Michael Paulsen on matters of constitutional interpretation. But not about the attempted disqualification of Donald Trump for running…

Reason

The Objection: "But He Hasn't Been Convicted Of Anything"

[Note: This is the fourth in a series of essays responding to objections that have been made to enforcing Section Three of the Constitution. The first three essays can be found here, here, and here.] Some critics have made the argument that Section Three cannot or should not be used…

Reason

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The Objection that Enforcing Section Three is "Undemocratic"

[Note: This is the second in a series of essays responding to objections that have been made to enforcing Section Three of the Constitution. The first, introductory essay, can be found here.] What about democracy?! We should let the people vote for whomever they want! Perhaps the most common objection…

Reason

"Officer of the United States" in Context

I have not been deep in the weeds of the arguments about Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, unlike my constitutional law casebook coauthors: Mike Paulsen, Michael McConnell, and Will Baude. But it is surprising to me that the former President of the United States seems to be putting most…

Reason

Meta Accused Of Mishandling Israel-Hamas War Posts

Meta's independent oversight board on Tuesday criticized the social media titan of removing posts that showed human suffering in the Middle East conflict.

International Business Times

Griswold v. Anderson: The Section 3 Case Before The Colorado Supreme Court

[This post is co-authored with Professor Seth Barrett Tillman]. On December 6, the Colorado Supreme Court heard oral argument in Griswold v. Anderson. In this case, a number of Colorado voters asked the Court to order the Colorado Secretary of State to remove Trump from the primary ballot. The trial…

Reason

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One-star ratings and threats: Review-bombing targets firms amid Gaza war

Businesses in the US are reporting fiery online backlash to Palestinian products and messages about the war in Gaza.

Al Jazeera

Insurrectionists Who Think they are Upholding the Constitution are Still Insurrectionists—and Still Subject to Disqualification Under Section 3 the Fourteenth Amendment

If false beliefs about legality exempt people from Section 3 disqualification, leading Confederates would have been exempt as well.

Reason

Prof. Larry Lessig (Harvard) Criticizing the § 3 Disqualification Argument as to Trump

An excerpt from Lessig's article in Slate (read the whole piece for more), discussing the same issue that has been discussed on this blog by Profs. Ilya Somin, Steve Calabresi, Will Baude, and Michael McConnell (and see also Jonathan Adler's post citing Prof. Derek Muller): The provision of the 14th…

Reason

Teaching Notes on Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard

Michael Stokes Paulsen, Michael McConnell, Sam Bray, and I recently completed and posted the 2023 online supplement to our constitutional law casebook: The Constitution of the United States. (I shilled for the book earlier on this blog -- at the start of the Trump administration -- as "A new constitutional…

Reason

Groups seek to use the Constitution's 'insurrection' clause to block Trump from 2024 ballots

Liberal groups are trying to end Donald Trump's attempt to return to the White House by arguing that he is no longer eligible to be president after trying to overturn the 2020 election results

The Independent UK

Could Trump be barred under the constitution’s ‘engaged in insurrection’ clause?

Experts suggest language in section 3 of 14th amendment is ‘actually very clearcut’ and could mean disqualification

The Guardian - US

Prof. Michael McConnell, Responding About the Fourteenth Amendment, "Insurrection," and Trump

"We must not forget that we are talking about empowering partisan politicians such as state Secretaries of State to disqualify their political opponents from the ballot, depriving voters of the ability to elect candidates of their choice. If abused, this is profoundly anti-democratic."

Reason

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Reason

The Eternal Recurrence of Debt Ceiling Debates

The current debate is a replay of debates we have had before (and will likely have again).

Reason

Can the Vice President Invoke the Speech or Debate Clause Privilege at All? [Updated]

Professor Michael McConnell writes to suggest that even if Vice President Pence was performing legislative functions on January 6, the Constitution's text does not extend the privilege to him.

Reuters

Behind U.S. Supreme Court race cases, a contested push for 'color blindness'

The U.S. Supreme Court's first Black woman justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, wasted no time making clear her views on race. On her second day of hearing arguments on the court, Jackson said the U.S. Constitution is not "race blind" and that governments may consider race to ensure that people are…

Reason

A Breakthrough on Reforming the Electoral Count Act [Updated]

The bipartisan Senate bill would be a major improvement over the status quo, and has attracted widespread support from experts in the field.

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Reason

Conservative Legal Luminaries Release Report Entitled "Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election"

The authors include big-name conservative former federal judges Michael Luttig and Michael McConnell, former Bush Solicitor General Ted Olson, and others.

Daily Record

Thursday's headlines: Scots dad's 'heart-wrenching' decision and teen's tragic death investigated

Here are the main headlines on the Daily Record website today.

Edinburgh Live

Scottish dad on horrific moment doctors asked if they should save baby or mum

His partner Stephanie Brown, 29, was giving birth to the couple's son Michael, known as Mickey, at 16 weeks early on November 8 last year. Mickey is now being treated at Edinburgh's Sick Kids.

Daily Record

Scots dad recalls heart-wrenching moment doctors asked if they should save baby or mum during labour

Michael McConnell spoke of the terrifying moment a doctor pulled him to one side and whispered: 'If push comes to shove, who survives, mum or baby?'.

Reason

Prof. Michael McConnell, Jeff Rosen, and I on the Court's Recent Free Speech and Religious Freedom Cases

On a Constitution Center podcast: Last week, the Supreme Court handed down two nearly unanimous decisions in cases involving the First Amendment. One was an 8-1 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts in Ramirez v. Collier, in which the Court sided with a death row inmate who claimed he…

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