"THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT - DO WE BELIEVE IN EQUALITY OR NOT?"

 “THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT - DO WE BELIEVE IN EQUALITY OR NOT?”

All of my forebears come from Mississippi, and some of my cousins still live there in northwest Mississippi.  Though I was born in Memphis (the capital of northwest Mississippi, east Arkansas and west Tennessee) and raised on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River, the roots of that state run deep in me.  

    For Father’s Day, our son David gave me “The Movement Made Us” by Davidson grad David Dennis.  It is a memoir-type book of Dennis’ father’s extensive work as a Freedom Rider and as a civil rights organizer, with the main focus being the work in Mississippi.  Daughter Susan gave me the book “Gathering Blossoms Under Fire – the Journals of Alice Walker,” edited by Valerie Boyd.  The early part of those journals are about Walker’s time in Mississippi in the civil rights movement – there she met her husband Mel and experienced the horrific and crushing racism and sexism of white, male supremacy.  These books are bringing back many memories and feelings about Mississippi and about my heritage.

In this sense it is no surprise that the SCOTUS decision in the Dobbs case that struck down Roe v. Wade comes out of Mississippi, as the white, male supremacy seeks to reassert itself to push down the humanity of women.  We are once again in the middle of the main question of American history:  do we believe in the idea of equality or not?  The recent SCOTUS decision in Dobbs and other cases tells me that SCOTUS may be returning to its stance in the 1890’s, when the idea of equality was overtly denied again.  We will need to count on the voice of the 14th Amendment to find a way to pull us out of the morass into which we seem to be sinking.  May more Thurgood Marshalls and Ruth Bader Ginsburgs arise in our midst! 

    There is one other area in which the 14th Amendment becomes even more contemporary for us.  Section 3 of that Amendment sought to deal with former Confederate officers who sought to become members of Congress after their states were re-admitted to the Union.  Here is text of 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.”

    In light of the January 6 House Select Committee Hearings on the deep involvement of Donald Trump in the violent attempt to overthrow the certified and legitimate results of the 2020 elections, it seems clear that this Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applies to him.  Before the House impeached Trump for a second time in February, 2021, they considered using the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump from holding elected office again.  They decided to go the impeachment route, partly because they did not have enough people willing to talk publicly about Trump’s involvement.

    That has now changed, and it is time now for Congress to act on this and disqualify Trump from running for office again.  Section 5 of the 14th Amendment empowers Congress to enforce its provisions, and thus the current Congress could act before the end of this year to do this.  It would take only a majority vote of both the House and the Senate to do this.  In the current House, its passage is a given.  In the Senate, it would be up to Manchin and Sinema, although some Republicans like Collins and Murkowski and even Mitch McConnell might vote for it.  The Senate might even break the filibuster to accomplish this.  The sweet part of this is that once it passes, it would take a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress to overturn it, which would not be attainable.  I want the Justice Department to prosecute Trump on his actions, but this would be in addition to, or even an alternative to, such a prosecution.  Barring Trump from any future elected office would not end Trumpism, which is the latest manifestation of the “Mississippi Plan” of the 1890’s, but it would send a message to us all about the consequences of such seditious behavior.