The co-founder of the Federalist Society, a self-described group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order, is speaking out about that concerning tweet from Donald Trump that suggested the November elections be postponed. On Thursday, the Northwestern law school professor wrote a blistering op-ed for the New York Times calling for the impeached president to relent on the assertion or be impeached once more.
“This latest tweet is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president’s immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate,” Steven G. Calabresi, a loyal Republican voter wrote about Trump’s assertion of an election postponement.
On Thursday morning, Trump tweeted out to his 84.4 million followers, “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA.” He added, “Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
As Calabresi pointed out, postponing the 2020 presidential election would be unconstitutional and unprecedented. Regardless of what has gone on in our country, voters have always been able to cast their vote on “the first Tuesday after November 1st.” A civil war, plague, pandemic, nor the greatest financial collapse of the 20th century has ever changed that. An election postponement is simply not an option.
If there is change to the way in which Americans vote for the president, that is to be decided upon by individual states. Whatever they decide, the Constitution requires that the newly elected Congress convene on January 3, 2021, and that if Trump loses a second term, he abdicate his role on January 20, 2021, at noon.
“President Trump needs to be told by every Republican in Congress that he cannot postpone the federal election,” Calabresi concludes. “Doing so would be illegal, unconstitutional and without precedent in American history. Anyone who says otherwise should never be elected to Congress again.”