There will, naturally, over the next set of hours to days to weeks be a mountain of armchair and professional commentary on what are the most compelling features of the most recent 45-page indictment handed down by a federal District Court grand jury against Trump. We’ll also get exposed to quite a bit of political handicapping into 2024, an eye-squinting attempt - looking into the future - at understanding how these legal troubles will influence the shape and contours of next year’s presidential election. The broader public will also struggle to simply keep up with it all: the daily and overwhelming deluge of breaking news about Trump’s legal woes and Trump’s poll standing including his chances at winning the Republican primary. All of the above is important. But, public discourse typically has a way of veering us off course from deeper understandings of a subject, as well as insights into even more critical items. This is, yes, a rather stunning and, to observers of history, frightening development. One might argue that it is the American justice system’s most extreme test ever. How does it, truly, hold a former president and also losing presidential candidate accountable for what we’ve all seen are clearly destructive actions towards the republic? This is the first time ever and if pulled off correctly it will set a new (and needed) standard. But, already, the larger or “mainstream” public conversation on this is missing key parts that some of us believe are a bit more essential. Several thoughts … Using The Klan Acts Kudos to the Washington Post for a full feature story on how special counsel Jack Smith used what was formerly and rather popularly known as the "Klu Klux Klan Acts” to prosecute Trump in this particular round of indictment. You should read it today if you read anything else. This is what makes it the most important and truly ironic of all indictments against the former president: an openly and long-time racist businessman and politician being brought up on federal charges by a very powerful civil rights enforcement tool created during the Reconstruction years (which they never really teach properly in high school). As the Post reports, Smith is using … … Section 241 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, [which] was originally adopted as part of the Enforcement Act of 1870. It was the first in a series of measures known as the Ku Klux Klan Acts designed to protect rights guaranteed by the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, collectively called the Reconstruction Amendments. Section 241 makes it a crime to ‘conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person’ exercising a right protected by the Constitution or federal law. In this case, the attempted overturning of an election through use of conspiracy, subversion, and the armed force which all culminated into the Jan. 6th terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol is clearly a violation of our collective civil and voting rights - or, the civil and voting rights of those who lawfully voted against the standing president (Trump) at that time. This activity is a standard democratic activity supported by the Constitution. Trump, along with co-conspirators and the Republican Party, attempted to overturn those results. Revisiting Reconstruction Smith’s decision to use the Klu Klux Klan Acts in his full-steam-ahead federal prosecution of Trump, it’s now that time for a full public revisitation of what happened during Reconstruction. The American memory on that is foggy on that, particularly these days, so we could all use the history lesson. This indictment comes at a very serious inflection point where Black history curriculum is being systematically and rapidly removed from schools. Understanding Reconstruction - and, of course, the years of slavery, the beginning of modern capitalism and the Civil War - offers us all the critical and necessary insights on what just happened with this indictment. Maybe start here for a summary and then dig deeper with these essential texts. But, yes, many have been waiting for a long-time for someone or some legal authority to lean on the use of the Klan Acts in this situation, just as there has been a gradual movement to remove Trump from the ballot under Section 3 in the 14th Amendment because he engaged in “insurrection.” Disqualification From The Next Election
|
