Maine Casts Its Ballot for Trump – WSJ

Ms. Bellows s administrative ruling largely tracks the opinion last week from the Colorado Supreme Court, except she blows through all the knotty legal questions in a breezy 34 pages. Section 3 was passed after the Civil War to stop Confederates who engaged in insurrection from retaking government posts. Applying it to Mr. Trump and the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, involves a series of dubious legal propositions.

Is Section 3 self-executing, so states may enforce it without further congressional guidance? It stands to reason, Ms. Bellows concludes after two paragraphs of analysis.

Does the disqualification provision cover Mr. Trump? Section 3 doesn t explicitly mention the Presidency. There s catchall language that includes anyone who previously took an oath as an officer of the United States, but some legal minds, including former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, say that phrase excludes Mr. Trump. Ms. Bellows disagrees without engaging the contrary textualist argument.

Was Jan. 6 an insurrection ? She says yes and accepts a definition that might encompass all sorts of political lawbreaking. Did Mr. Trump engage in it? This question is a closer one, she writes. But by a preponderance of the evidence, she finds that Mr. Trump s actions were incitement of insurrection, which in her view is enough to trigger Section 3.

Skepticism of this legal daisy chain is not a defense of Mr. Trump. After filling up his supporters with falsehoods about a stolen election, calling a Jan. 6 rally, riling up the crowd, and urging it to march on the Capitol, Mr. Trump is responsible for what happened. His apparent reluctance to call off the mob or help a besieged Congress, as he watched the violence on TV, was a dereliction of the highest order.

A statesman driven by the public interest, instead of personal vindictiveness, wouldn t have played with this fire. But lengthy Jan. 6 investigations have produced no evidence that Mr. Trump was privately communicating with the rioters or knew in advance what the vanguard in the crowd was going to do. Jan. 6 was not the Civil War or even the Whiskey Rebellion.

via www.wsj.com

Ok, but the Whiskey Rebellion was a real rebellion, with guns.