What Constitution?

In the not so distant past, even when Democrats and Republicans disagreed, both parties attempted to follow the guidelines of the U.S. Constitution. It seem as though that has changed in recent years. Alan Dershowitz is a well-known Democrat who has been called out by his party more than once for his apolitical support of the U.S. Constitution. On Tuesday, he posted an article at The Epoch Times about the arrest of Peter Navarro.

The article notes:

The indictment of Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress violates several provisions of the Constitution and should be dismissed. Navarro has a strong claim of executive privilege that should be decided by the courts before any indictment can lawfully issue.

Either the Justice Department or Congress should seek a judicial ruling that Navarro’s claim of executive privilege is invalid. If the court rules that it is invalid and orders him to respond to the congressional subpoena, Navarro should have an opportunity to comply. If he fails to comply with a judicial order, he can either be indicted or held in contempt by the court. But absent a judicial order, he cannot lawfully be indicted for invoking executive privilege and refusing to reveal arguably privileged material just because a committee of Congress, controlled by Democrats, has voted that he should. It is not enough to allow him to appeal after the fact, because information, once revealed, cannot be erased. He is obliged to claim privilege now and refuse to respond. That is not a crime. It is the constitutionally correct action.

Navarro’s indictment violates several key constitutional rights, including due process, fair warning and executive privilege. It also violates the separation of powers, under which the courts have the authority to resolve conflicts between the legislative and executive branches over claims of executive privilege in response to legislative subpoenas. Due process and fair warning require that these issues first be resolved by the courts before an indictment can be issued.

Please follow the link to the article for further details.

The bottom line here is simple. The Democrats need something to run on in the mid-term elections. They have chosen January 6th, stating that the events of that day were a threat to our Democracy. First of all, we are a representative republic–not a Democracy. Second of all, the protesters were not armed. If you are going to have an insurrection, you should probably carry a weapon. Two women died that day at the hands of the Capitol police–one shot and one gassed and beaten to death (article here). I don’t think the protesters were the problem.