{"id":15460,"date":"2020-07-31T01:02:09","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T08:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=15460"},"modified":"2020-07-31T01:02:11","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T08:02:11","slug":"trump-might-try-to-postpone-the-election-thats-unconstitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/trump-might-try-to-postpone-the-election-thats-unconstitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Might Try to Postpone the Election. That\u2019s Unconstitutional."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>He should be removed unless he relents.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By&nbsp;Steven G. Calabresi<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Calabresi is a co-founder of the Federalist Society and a professor at Northwestern University\u2019s Pritzker School of Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>July 30, 2020 (NYTimes.com)<\/li><li><ul><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dialog\/feed?app_id=9869919170&amp;link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F07%2F30%2Fopinion%2Ftrump-delay-election-coronavirus.html%3Fsmid%3Dfb-share&amp;name=Trump%20Might%20Try%20to%20Postpone%20the%20Election.%20That%E2%80%99s%20Unconstitutional.&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F07%2F30%2Fopinion%2Ftrump-delay-election-coronavirus.html%3Fsmid%3Dtw-share&amp;text=Trump%20Might%20Try%20to%20Postpone%20the%20Election.%20That%E2%80%99s%20Unconstitutional.\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"mailto:?subject=NYTimes.com%3A%20Trump%20Might%20Try%20to%20Postpone%20the%20Election.%20That%E2%80%99s%20Unconstitutional.&amp;body=From%20The%20New%20York%20Times%3A%0A%0ATrump%20Might%20Try%20to%20Postpone%20the%20Election.%20That%E2%80%99s%20Unconstitutional.%0A%0AHe%20should%20be%20removed%20unless%20he%20relents.%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F07%2F30%2Fopinion%2Ftrump-delay-election-coronavirus.html%3Fsmid%3Dem-share\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/li><li><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2020\/07\/30\/opinion\/30Calabresi2\/30Calabresi2-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"The president on Thursday tweeted that the 2020 election would be \u201cfraudulent\u201d if there is universal mail-in voting.\"\/><figcaption>The president on Thursday tweeted that the 2020 election would be \u201cfraudulent\u201d if there is universal mail-in voting.Credit&#8230;Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I have voted Republican in every presidential election since 1980, including voting for Donald Trump in 2016. I wrote op-eds and a law review article protesting what I believe was an unconstitutional investigation by Robert Mueller. I also wrote an op-ed opposing President Trump\u2019s impeachment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I am frankly appalled by the president\u2019s recent tweet seeking to postpone the November election. Until recently, I had taken as political hyperbole the Democrats\u2019 assertion that President Trump is a fascist. But this latest tweet is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president\u2019s immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is what President Trump tweeted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE &amp; FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1288818160389558273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 30, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The nation has faced grave challenges before, just as it does today with the spread of the coronavirus. But it has never canceled or delayed a presidential election. Not in 1864, when President Abraham Lincoln was expected to lose and the South looked as if it might defeat the North. Not in 1932 in the depths of the Great Depression. Not in 1944 during World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we certainly should not even consider canceling this fall\u2019s election because of the president\u2019s concern about mail-in voting, which is likely to increase because of fears about Covid-19. It is up to each of the 50 states whether to allow universal mail-in voting and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/constitutioncenter.org\/interactive-constitution\/article\/article-ii\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Article II of the Constitution<\/a>&nbsp;explicitly gives the states total power over the selection of presidential electors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2020\/07\/30\/opinion\/30Calabresi1\/merlin_174987366_1e15384e-a2a6-4a17-962e-7968fc3552a7-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"It is up to each of the 50 states whether to allow universal mail-in voting.\"\/><figcaption>It is up to each of the 50 states whether to allow universal mail-in voting.Credit&#8230;Matt Slocum\/Associated Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Election Day was fixed by a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/law\/help\/statutes-at-large\/28th-congress\/session-2\/c28s2ch1.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">federal law<\/a>&nbsp;passed in 1845, and the Constitution itself in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/constitutioncenter.org\/interactive-constitution\/amendment\/amendment-xx\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">20th Amendment<\/a>&nbsp;specifies that the newly elected Congress meet at noon on Jan. 3, 2021, and that the terms of the president and vice president end at noon on Jan. 20, 2021. If no newly elected president is available, the speaker of the House of Representatives becomes acting president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Trump needs to be told by every Republican in Congress that he cannot postpone the federal election. Doing so would be illegal, unconstitutional and without precedent in American history. Anyone who says otherwise should never be elected to Congress again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.northwestern.edu\/faculty\/profiles\/StevenCalabresi\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steven G. Calabresi<\/a>&nbsp;is a co-founder of the Federalist Society and a professor at Northwestern University\u2019s Pritzker School of Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Times is committed to publishing&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/31\/opinion\/letters\/letters-to-editor-new-york-times-women.html\"><em>a diversity of letters<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;to the editor. We\u2019d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/help.nytimes.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/115014925288-How-to-submit-a-letter-to-the-editor\"><em>tips<\/em><\/a><em>. And here\u2019s our email:&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"mailto:letters@nytimes.com\"><em>letters@nytimes.com<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Follow The New York Times Opinion section on&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nytopinion\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Facebook<\/em><\/a><em>,&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/NYTOpinion\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Twitter (@NYTopinion)<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nytopinion\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Instagram<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/help.nytimes.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/115014792127-Copyright-notice\">\u00a9&nbsp;2020&nbsp;The New York Times Company<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He should be removed unless he relents. By&nbsp;Steven G. Calabresi Mr. Calabresi is a co-founder of the Federalist Society and a professor at Northwestern University\u2019s Pritzker School of Law. July 30, 2020 (NYTimes.com) I have voted Republican in every presidential election since 1980, including voting for Donald Trump in 2016&#8230;. <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/trump-might-try-to-postpone-the-election-thats-unconstitutional\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15460"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15461,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15460\/revisions\/15461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}