re: SCOTUS oral arguments on Trump vs Colorado

quote:

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18 U.S. Code § 2383 was written in 1948

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It was codified in Title 18 in 1948, but the same statute already existed when the 14th Amendment was passed by Congress in 1868.

I posted a thread on this earlier today, because I was not aware of this information.

The Second Confiscation Act, passed during the Civil War, codified insurrection as a crime (it was a common law crime up until then). I never bothered reading the provision because I thought the Confiscation clause had been rendered moot by Johnson's amnesty grant.

But, no, the insurrection statute in thst Act remained in effect. Sections 2 and 3 of that Act were virtually identical to 18 USC 2383, except that it mentions liberating the slaves of insurrectionists.

So, when Title 18 was drafted and passed in 1948, all section 2383 did was repeat the insurrection statute that already existed.

Since the statute already existed before the 14th Amendment was even drafted, it could not possibly be considered the enabling legislation.

It also begs the question of why would section 3 even be necessary if the insurrection statute already existed? Obviously, they could not convict the Confederates under the Confiscation act, because Johnson granted them amnesty. Even without amnesty, the task of convicting everyone was out of the question.

So, section 3 provides an alternative to convictions for insurrection. Anyone who took an oath to support the Constitution and then "engaged in insurrection" IA barred from holding civil or military offices again.

And there WAS an enforcement provision passed, but it was not carried over into Title 18, unfortunately.