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Bravo to the Bangor Daily News for publishing the July 11 column by Maine Lawyers for the Rule of Law declaring that scores of Maine law firms believe in the rule of law. Now let’s put money where our mouth is.
Maine, Colorado and Illinois all concluded that Donald Trump was disqualified from office by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was once held to be self-enforcing. It says no person who swore an oath to defend the Constitution and then participated in an insurrection to block the operations of the Constitution or lent aid and comfort to the enemies of it, could hold public office unless two-thirds of each chamber of Congress were to vote to remove that disqualification.
The Supreme Court blocked states from making that finding for federal candidates saying Section 5 says Congress may enact legislation implementing the 14th. Section 5 does not block the federal courts from enforcing it as we learned in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
I think Lawyers for the Rule of Law should seek a declaratory judgment in federal court that Trump remains disqualified from office. Vice President JD Vance supported pardons for the insurrectionists as well.
John Fitzgerald
Sedgwick
