{"id":15007,"date":"2024-04-17T18:34:51","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T01:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15007"},"modified":"2024-04-17T19:13:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T02:13:10","slug":"scotus-suddenly-concerned-about-over-criminalization-for-j6-insurrectionists-bradcast-4172024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15007","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS Suddenly Concerned About Over-Criminalization &#8230; for J6 Insurrectionists: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 4\/17\/2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_Jan6Insurrection-Ladder_041724.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">On today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a>: If only the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court cared as much about the exact words in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment (the <a href=\"https:\/\/constitution.congress.gov\/browse\/amendment-14\/section-3\/\">&#8220;Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause&#8221;<\/a>) as they pretend to care about the word &#8220;otherwise&#8221; in a criminal statute used to hold hundreds of January 6 insurrectionists &#8212; including the former President &#8212; accountable for obstructing an official government proceeding. [<i>Audio link to full show follows this summary.<\/i>]\n<p>But, first up today, a few news items of note&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Yesterday, <b>House Republicans<\/b> formerly delivered two articles of revenge impeachment against DHS Secretary <b>Alejandro Mayorkas<\/b> to the <b>U.S. Senate<\/b> for a trial. Today the trial <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/apr\/17\/dismiss-impeachment-charges-mayorkas\">began and ended<\/a>, as Democrats determined the articles contained no High Crimes and Misdemeanors as required by the Constitution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Despite pleas from <b>Donald Trump<\/b> and GOP U.S. Senate candidate <b>Kari Lake<\/b> for <b>Arizona<\/b> state lawmakers to repeal their draconian 1864 total abortion ban (which Lake long supported&#8230;until the all-GOP state Supreme Court revived the law last week), Republicans lawmakers in the state legislature <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/arizona-democrats-seek-repeal-1864-abortion-ban-need-republican-help-2024-04-17\/\">blocked another attempt by Democrats<\/a> to repeal the 160-year old territorial law.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In Tuesday&#8217;s Democratic Primary runoff for <b>Alabama<\/b>&#8216;s newly redrawn 2nd Congressional District, the popular progressive, <b>Shomari Figures<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montgomeryadvertiser.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2024\/04\/16\/alabama-2nd-congressional-district-shomari-figures-wins-democratic-runoff\/73329517007\/\">easily won<\/a>. The more important news, however, may be that Democratic voter turnout during the first round of voting last month on Super Tuesday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2024\/04\/15\/alabama-voter-turnout-redrawn-congressional-district\/73326639007\/\">doubled from two years earlier<\/a>. That, after the state was finally ordered by the <b>U.S. Supreme Court<\/b> to redraw their unconstitutionally, racially gerrymandered Congressional Map to include a second district where Black voters may have a chance of selecting a candidate of their choosing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Next, we&#8217;re joined by longtime legal journalist <b>CHRIS GEIDNER<\/b> of <a href=\"https:\/\/LawDork.com\">Law Dork News<\/a> to discuss <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/us-supreme-court-tackles-rioters-obstruction-case-with-trump-implications-2024-04-16\/\">Tuesday&#8217;s Oral Argument<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/case-files\/cases\/fischer-v-united-states\/\"><i>Fischer v. U.S.<\/i><\/a> at the <b>U.S. Supreme Court<\/b>. The case questions whether a January 6th insurrectionist was properly charged with a 2002 law that criminalizes obstruction of an official government proceeding. <\/p>\n<p>Some 300 of about 1,400 of those charged for their participation in the Trump-incited attack on the U.S. Capitol &#8212; including Trump himself &#8212; have been charged and\/or convicted by more than a dozen D.C. federal judges under this same statute. But one of those judges, a Trump appointee, rejected the use of the law. He was overturned by the D.C. Court of Appeals, but the plaintiff &#8212; a police officer at the time &#8212; took his case to SCOTUS, which heard it on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Geidner was at the Court this week during Oral Argument and joins us today to explain how the hearing went; why this challenge over the the meaning of the word &#8220;otherwise&#8221; in the statute even exists; the rightwing Justices&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawdork.com\/p\/scotus-jan-6-obstruction-statute-arguments\">newly-discovered concerns about overcriminalization<\/a>; whether he believes the Court will kill, narrow or allow the statute to stand as is; and how their ruling might affect both the cases for hundreds of insurrectionists and two of the four criminal charges that rely on the statute in Special Counsel <b>Jack Smith<\/b>&#8216;s federal indictment of the former President for his multiple failed attempts to steal the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>Geidner also offers a preview of next Thursday&#8217;s looong-awaited hearing on Trump&#8217;s ridiculous, rejected-by-every-lower-court, &#8220;Presidential Immunity&#8221; case, in which he asserts that all Presidents must have absolute immunity to commit any and all crimes they like while in office.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The arguments advanced by Trump have no foundation in history, in practice, or in experience. And there is a very strong case for imagining that we will get a 9-0 decision in that case, even with this Court,&#8221; Geidner argues, before noting: &#8220;The bottom line here is Trump will still have delayed [his federal 2020 election interference] case. It will be at least May before we get a ruling on this. So, in some ways, win lose or draw, he has won, if the goal here is to avoid the possibility of a conviction on these charges before the election is held in November.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\".\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman-SenImpeachTrialEnds-AbortionAZ-VoterTurnoutAL_ChrisGeidner-ObstructionSCOTUS_041724.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pandora.com\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/PC:1000025838\">Pandora<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9icmFkYmxvZy5jb20vcG9kY2FzdGdlbi9icmFkY2FzdC9mZWVkLnhtbA\">Google<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-BradCast-w-Brad-Friedman\/dp\/B08JJRN86R\/ref=sr_1_1\">Amazon<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><strong>The BRAD BLOG<\/strong>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On today&#8217;s BradCast: If only the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court cared as much about the exact words in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment (the &#8220;Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause&#8221;) as they pretend to care about the word &#8220;otherwise&#8221; in a criminal statute used to hold hundreds of January 6 insurrectionists &#8212; including the former President &#8212; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,113,1631,70,89,675,479,969,1611,1110,178,1590,1791,477,126,127,198,233,313,517],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-alabama","category-alejandro-mayorkas","category-arizona","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-donald-trump","category-election-2020","category-election-2024","category-gerrymandering","category-impeachment","category-insurrection","category-kari-lake","category-kpfk","category-rights-and-freedoms","category-the-constitution","category-us-house","category-us-senate","category-us-supreme-court","category-voting-rights-act","bb-type-bradcast"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15007"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=15007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}