Zoom Link: ‘How to Navigate an Increasingly Dangerous World’

Live Session Today at 12 noon EDT / 9 a.m. PDT

Donald Trump is unqualified to be president. This is a fact.

He was disqualified from the presidency by Colorado courts last year, and even the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against state enforcement does not change this reality. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, adopted in the aftermath of the Civil War, says no person who took an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” can hold any office in the United States.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Colorado ruling from last year that blocked Donald Trump from the Colorado ballot. However, it did not dispute the merits, or the finding already made that the constitutional provision—which states that anyone who took an oath to uphold the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” cannot hold any office in the United States—applies to Trump. Indeed, according to preeminent constitutional scholars including Prof. Laurence Tribe and Judge Michael Luttig, Section 3 is self-executing, and Congress may choose to enforce it.

In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court’s own ruling requires that: “responsibility for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with Congress.”

A very parallel situation exists with mental health. Donald Trump is unfit to be president, and that, too, is a fact.

He was properly evaluated to be unfit for the presidency by an independent panel of top, nongovernmental mental health experts from around the country, applying medical neutrality and standard operating procedure. Not even the federally-funded American Psychiatric Association, stepping in with its altered “Goldwater rule” to silence all mental health experts, could change this reality. And while there are no functional requirements for taking the presidency, Section 4 of the 25th Amendment limits who can keep the presidency.

The American Psychiatric Association, acting as an arm of the Trump administration, instilled the false idea that those who uphold the Declaration of Geneva by speaking up against dangerous regimes are “unethical”. However, it did not dispute the merits, or the medical finding that Donald Trump is unfit. According to mental health laws, everyone in every position in the country is presumed mentally fit until found to be otherwise—at which time the person may be removed from one’s position until one can prove fitness or until fitness is restored. This is very much the standard Section 4 applies.

In fact, Section 4 states that the removal of a president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” can be initiated by an “other body as Congress may by law provide.” It would seem eminently reasonable for Congress to set up an “other body” to screen presidents who are already “unable” to assume the duties of the presidency.

Announcement:

Dr. Bandy X. Lee is inviting you to a live session in a series: