It has been reported that at least one sitting state lawmaker participated in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The 14th Amendment, section 3, says:
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.
So someone who engaged in "insurrection or rebellion against" the US Constitution cannot be a state legislator (or other type of federal or state official). My questions are:
- Could the storming of the US Capitol count as insurrection against the Constitution for the purposes of section 3 of the 14th Amendment?
- Does Congress need to pass a law to implement section 3 of the 14th Amendment before it can be invoked? or is it self-implementing?
- What would be the process to disqualify or remove a federal or state official under section 3 of the 14th Amendment? Who has standing to make the complaint? What court can the complaint be made in?