Members of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia are seen in front of the U.S. Capitol a day after a pro-Trump mob broke into the building on Jan. 7, 2021.
Why was the Fourteenth Amendment written and them made law? I suspect the Republicans were giving clear messages to foreign entities that they had won the Civil War and the United States would honor the debts it incurred putting down Insurrectionists, so, that if there arose another rebellion, the same foreign powers would come to the aid of Democracy – and not those who killed to own human beings. This amendment is rewarding loyalty, and punishing disloyalty. Those who engaged in insurrection on Jan 6th. were punished. Lawmakers who support the Insurrectionist this very day, should be disqualified from voting on the Debt Ceiling – and not be allowed to run for office.
This is the amendment to my letter to VP Harris;
Would you and President Biden look into the real possibility the Capitol Police will not be paid for services rendered in putting down the Jan 6th. Insurrection, in regards to overtime. There is a real possibility they will not BE THERE TO PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY, if the Republicans do not raise the debt ceiling. To not do so may be seen as a act of Treason. Anyone who wants the chaos that will result, should lose their citizenship and right to vote. This goes for anyone who backs Insurrectionists, or, wants to pardon them, such as Donald Trump. All he has to do is admit Biden and you won, conduct a simple ceremony handing over the reigns of power, and sign the Iron Clad Oath. What better way for him to show he is a Loyal American. How can the Supreme Court deny the Capitol Police their wages – after getting protection from these Loyal Americans?
John Presco
except for participation in rebellion, or other crime
shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.
Section 4
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Constitution of the United States
Fourteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment Explained
Section 1
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
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.
Section 4
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5
The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Dear Vice President Harris. I was born in Oakland during an amazing star-shower and lived on Berlin Way, a street my German grandfathers named. They built about forty homes in the Fruitvale area. They were Forty-Eighters and members of the Turnverein. We co-found the City of Belmont where we had one of the first theme park on the West Coast. I just ran for Governor of Oregon as a Republican because I am kin to John Fremont, the co-founder of this party that was taken over by Dixiecrats in the Red States. I voted the Democratic ticket most of my life. This was ten years ago. It was my hope the Abolitionist party of Fremont and Lincoln – would return to sanity. My hope – is dashed!
Recently I connected Jack London to George Miller who lived in Eugene Oregon. He and his wife published the Pacific Monthly. This is huge because Joaquin Miller is Georges brother, and honorary member of the Bohemian Club that Justice Clarence Thomas visited. Miller had a Bohemian commune above the farm of my ancestors where Japanese poets lived. This is vital in establishing a cultural exchange with Japan, a hands across the water theme
I have posted idea to my Governor, Tina Kotek in getting Disney to move to Oregon. I was behind the new home for the Oakland A’s at Howard terminal where I lived on my sailboat. That deal is not quite dead. I am asking for your intervention. I have called for a all-Black Naval Academy in Marin that can be located in Oakland. The old stadium and arena can be home to this Cadet School. Also, I am looking at the closed Alameda Naval Station being home to Disney, and or, a Futuristic College with a Atlantis theme – and a new statue of Pacifica.
I am very concerned about the drug fentanyl in the Bay Area. In my prophetic science fiction book ‘The Gideon Computer’ I saw the coming of ‘Crinkle’.I am an original hippie and would like to take part in a major recovery program. I have been on the bus with Ken Kesey, and have been clean and sober for thirty-six years. I can help found an emergency program.
I am a Biblical Scholar who has become very concerned about Christian Nationalism that may be backing Putin and his Patriarch, who called for a Holy War against the LBGTQ people in Ukraine. It looks like Justice Thomas, and Governor DeSantis, are in lockstep with ‘Killer Kirill. On March 1, 2018, I placed all LGBTQ people under the protection of the Knights Templars who may be my kin. Has Governor DeSantis been to….The Grove?
It is my desire for you to convey this message to President Biden, on the eve of what looks like Economic Warfare. I just began to study the Fourteenth Amendment that appears to comcern to Lincoln and the Republican Party, to insure the economic wellbeing of a re-united States does not result in total economic collapse, and thus encouraging foreign advisories to invade America to collect debts, such was the case of France invading Mexico. This amendment declares the rules of who can best restore the American Economy, and who best not take part. Insurectionists are hindered for taking part in the Cvil War, they replaced with Loyal Southerners. Governor DeSantis has declared a Holy War on the history of the Thirteen and Fourteenth Amendment, He is waging a economic warfare on Disney for supporting Gay rights. No LGBT origination took up arms against the Union in the Civil War. thus they are not outside the spirit of the Fourteenth. Couple with Disney, it can be concluded Gays are being signaled out for Economic Retribution.
Because many Republican Senators and Congressman still believe you and the rightful President stole the election, then I find it fitting that all elected officials take The Iron Clad Oath – or they will have no vote in raising the Debt Celling. How much money did The Real Traitors cost the U.S. Government, which includes borrowing from Foreign Nations? Please, send the Iron Clad Oath to all elcted Democrats so they can sign it by the time our debts come to.
Would you and President Biden look into the real possibility the Capitol Police will not be paid for services rendered in putting down the Jan 6th. Insurrection, in regards to overtime, and the real possibility they will not BE THERE TO PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY, if the Republicans do not raise the debt ceiling. To not do so may be seen as a act of Treason. Anyone who wants the chaos that will result, should lose their citizenship and right to vote. This goes for anyone who backs Insurrectionists, or, wants to pardon them, such as Donald Trump. All he has to do is admit Biden and you won, conduct a simple ceremony handing over the reigns of power, and sign the Iron Clad Oath. What better way for him to show he is a Loyal American. How can the Supreme Court deny the Capitol Policd their wages – after getting protection from these Loyal Americans?
Sincerely
John Presco
President: Royal Rosamond Press
I, A. B., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have never voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I have been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility thereto; that I have neither sought nor accepted nor attempted to exercise the functions of any office whatever, under any authority or pretended authority in hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a voluntary support to any pretended government, authority, power or constitution within the United States, hostile or inimical thereto. And I do further swear (or affirm) that, to the best of my knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.
The Capitol Police would see a budget cut of $162 million dollars, resulting in the loss of 600 sworn officers.10
July 9, 2021, 7:36 AM PDT / Updated July 9, 2021, 12:38 PM PDT
By Rebecca Shabad and Frank Thorp V
WASHINGTON — U.S. Capitol Police employees are at risk of being furloughed if Congress doesn’t provide the agency more money before the end of September.
Capitol Police will run out of money in the account used to pay salaries in mid-August, but they might be able to stretch out the process and transfer money from other sources, a source familiar with the situation told NBC News. The condition of the depleted account and risk of furloughs was first reported by Punchbowl News.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., renewed the call on Friday to pass more funding for the police.
“We did not budget for an insurrection, and without action the Capitol Police will go without payment for the hours of overtime they have incurred, without proper equipment, and without sufficient mental health services to deal with the continued trauma from that day,” Leahy said in a statement.
The police issued a statement saying that the agency “continues to advise and work with” lawmakers to ensure they can continue to protect the Capitol and members of Congress.
How the Supreme Court might view the debt limit fight
A debt-ceiling deadlock could push Biden to invoke the 14th Amendment — setting up a showdown at the high court.
The conservative majority has been highly skeptical of Joe Biden’s attempts to harness executive power and bypass Congress. | Samuel Corum/Getty Images
05/14/2023 05:00 PM EDT
If Joe Biden and House Republicans fail to reach a debt deal, the crisis could get tossed to the Supreme Court — where it would scramble the usual priorities of the court’s conservatives.
The court’s current approach to most cases is overwhelmingly pro-market and business-friendly. The justices would be wary of stoking economic calamity.
At the same time, the conservative majority has been highly skeptical of Biden’s attempts to harness executive power and bypass Congress. If he invoked the 14th Amendment to avoid a default — an option the White House is weighing — it would be just the sort of unprecedented power grab that the conservative justices have condemned in other areas of Biden’s economic platform.
Ultimately, legal experts say, the Supreme Court might try to dodge the issue altogether. The recurring fight over the debt ceiling has always been a political standoff, and the justices might want it to stay that way.
Biden open to invoking 14th Amendment to avoid debt defaultShare
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.574.0_en.html#goog_307311940Play Video
“If you’re John Roberts — I think even if you’re Brett Kavanaugh or Amy Coney Barrett — you don’t want people to say, ‘Oh yeah, that was the case in which the Supreme Court tanked the global economy,’” Cornell law professor Michael Dorf said. “You want to be able to say, ‘Oh, they left that issue to the political branches, which tanked the global economy.’”
The odds that the justices will be asked to weigh in increased last week with the news that Biden’s advisers are considering the 14th Amendment strategy. Linked to an obscure provision known as the public debt clause, the untested theory could arguably allow him to bust through the debt ceiling without congressional sign-off.
The move would trigger a constitutional quandary layered on top of a potential financial crisis – and if challenged in court, it could rocket up to 1 First Street, perhaps even on the so-called shadow docket, the process the court uses to resolve emergency appeals quickly.
What would happen then is difficult to predict. But even Biden and his aides recognize the legal risk.
“The problem is, it would have to be litigated,” the president said on Tuesday after acknowledging that he is reviewing the option.
His treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, echoed that sentiment at a press conference on Thursday. “It’s legally questionable whether or not that’s a viable strategy,” she said.
Even as staff-level meetings continue and some participants see glimmers of hope for a deal to raise the debt ceiling, some Biden allies, including noted constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe, are urging the White House to keep the 14th Amendment option on the table. The amendment’s public debt clause says “the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.” Some scholars argue that this provision makes the debt-ceiling statute unconstitutional – meaning that, if Congress failed to raise the ceiling, the Treasury Department would have the authority to ignore the ceiling and continue issuing new debt to pay the nation’s bills.
Biden accuses MAGA GOP of ‘holding the economy hostage’Share
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.574.0_en.html#goog_212219036Play Video
But the vague language of the clause has been interpreted by the Supreme Court only once – in a 1935 case called Perry v. United States that does not answer whether a congressionally mandated debt ceiling is valid.
One pending lawsuit is already seeking to clarify the question. On May 8, a union representing federal workers sought a court order barring Yellen from complying with the debt ceiling on the basis that it violates the 14th Amendment. The anticipatory lawsuit from the National Association of Government Employees argues that defaulting on the national debt would force the president to violate the Constitution by picking and choosing which congressionally authorized payments to make. In other words, according to Dorf, a default would functionally make the president conduct line-item vetoes — a practice the Supreme Court barred in Clinton v. City of New York in 1998.
MOST READ
- Biden’s 14th Amendment message to progressives: It ain’t gonna happen
- Feinstein’s primary caregiver: Pelosi’s daughter
- ‘Big step’: U.S. joins major effort to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s, other jets
- Pence’s prepared speech lifted words directly from Trump
- Democrats race to avoid a Biden embarrassment in New Hampshire
“In these circumstances, the president’s least bad option is to violate the debt ceiling by continuing to borrow money, because at least that way he’s not completely making up legislative policy,” Dorf told POLITICO.
If Biden chose that route, his action almost certainly would be challenged in court, perhaps by House Republicans seeking to stop him.
Because the issue is so novel, it is difficult to predict how individual justices would interpret the public debt clause.
“They’re entering a political thicket here,” Stanley Brand, former general counsel for the House of Representatives, said of the prospect of the high court weighing in.
Brand guessed that the three liberal justices would side with Biden, while headstrong conservatives like Samuel Alito would be against.
The court’s more pragmatically minded conservatives, like John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh, may be — as they so often are on the current court — the pivotal votes.
“This one,” Dorf said, “could fall in that narrow slice where the court says, ‘Look, this is a political dispute between the president and the Congress, and they have ample means of resolving this; we don’t referee those disputes.’”
LATEST NEWS ON THE DEBT CEILING
- What you need to know about the 14th Amendment and the debt ceiling
- Biden’s 14th Amendment message to progressives: It ain’t gonna happen
- McCarthy on debt talks: ‘We need movement from the White House’
- Negotiators resume weekend debt talks as clock ticks
- AOC’s advice to Joe Biden on the debt limit showdown
Regardless, Dorf added, Supreme Court justices will want to stay far away from economic armageddon.
“I believe there will be an ideological divide, because there is on everything with high political stakes,” he said. “But given that, I think there will be some advantage to whichever side can better characterize what it wants is for the courts to stay out and leave this to political actors.”
One problem, though, is that it would likely be weeks or months before the Supreme Court could settle the issue — and that period of limbo could itself create economic turmoil. The fastest possible resolution would take 6 to 8 weeks, Brand told POLITICO.
“Otherwise, you’re going to have the threat of a slap-dash decision, which at least speaking with respect to the Supreme Court is not what they’re going to want to do,” Brand added.
Michael McConnell, a professor at Stanford Law School, said the pace of litigation — compared with the rapid response of the markets — is one reason the case would never reach the high court.
“If the president, on his own authority, ordered the issuance of new bonds, they would not be backed by the United States and investors would be foolish to buy them,” he said.
“The economic consequence would happen immediately, long before it ever got to court,” McConnell added. “This is just an illegal, foolish idea.”
McConnell also pushed back hard against the arguments about the 14th Amendment and the debt ceiling.
GOP takes aim at spending while Dems fear debt defaultShare
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.574.0_en.html#goog_375776887Play Video
“I don’t think it’s very complicated,” he said. “The president does not have authority to borrow money without authorization from Congress. Congress has authorized borrowing up to a certain point. He has no power to borrow beyond that point. The 14th Amendment has nothing to do with it.”
Tribe and other legal scholars disagree. And they say that, regardless of the legal uncertainty, the risk of litigation is overblown for a simple, practical reason: No one would have standing to sue because no one would suffer concrete harm from the president’s action.
Dorf said beneficiaries of pension funds could potentially make a strong case for standing, given contractual obligations that investors only invest in AAA-rated securities. Dorf added that the administration could circumvent that risk by selling bonds to the Federal Reserve Bank.
“If you sell bonds of dubious legality, it’s not clear who has standing,” Dorf said. “If you sell them to the Fed, I’m not sure anybody has standing to challenge that.”
That argument — that the courts might decide it’s not their place to referee this particular dispute — was echoed by Saikrishna Prakash, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law.
“I don’t know if there can be a successful challenge because I don’t know who has standing to challenge him on raising the debt ceiling unilaterally,” Prakash told POLITICO. “In our system, something can be illegal but it doesn’t follow that you can go to court to get a remedy for it.”
The Republican-controlled House could also potentially sue. “But the courts don’t generally say that a chamber of Congress can just walk into court whenever they believe the president has usurped their constitutional powers,” Prakash said.
Of course, even a threshold dispute over standing would have to be resolved by the courts — and potentially the Supreme Court.
Rosamond Press 