Posts Tagged ‘Constitution’

Never Be President

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

So I was just re-reading the Fourteenth Amendment (what, you don’t read the Constitution for fun?) and I came to a horrible conclusion – it’s possible I won’t be able to run for Congress or the Presidency because of our insurrection when George W. Bush won in 2004 (see 83 Portland Rd Succeeds from Union).

Oops:

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.

Of course, we could try and get two-thirds of Congress to help, but that doesn’t seem likely …

Jefferson on Equality

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Looking up Thomas Jefferson after my post yesterday about Texas and education and that whole mess, I found something interesting regarding TJ and his writing of the Declaration of Independence:

[Congress] also altered his wording regarding equal rights. His original wording is here in blue italics: “All men are created equal and independent. From that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable.” Congress changed that phrase, increasing its religious overtones: “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.”

Good to know.

Plead the Fifth

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Punk-rock journalist Spencer Ackerman had a post yesterday that linked to the text of bill McCain and Lieberman introduced regarding the closure of Guantanamo Bay, specifically regarding detention. Here’s a chunk (emphasis mine):

An individual, including a citizen of the United States, determined to be an unprivileged enemy belligerent under section 3(c)(2) in a manner which satisfies Article 15 5 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War may be detained without criminal charges and without trial for the duration of hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners in which the individual has engaged, or which the individual has purposely and materially supported, consistent with the law of war and any authorization for the use of military force provided by Congress pertaining to such hostilities.

Um, don’t we have a Bill of Rights that includes, oh, I don’t know, the polar opposite of this? Something about not being deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law?

Criminy!