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McGeorge professors help explain events at the U.S. Capitol
McGeorge鈥檚 Associate Dean Mary-Beth Moylan and Anthony M. Kennedy Professor of Law Leslie Gielow Jacobs were called on multiple times yesterday and today to help explain the events that took place on January 6 at the U.S Capitol and the ramifications of those events.
In an interview with , Dean Moylan characterized the attack on the Capitol as 鈥渁 really great illustration of what happens in a lawless society.鈥�
While the events that took place yesterday were 鈥渕ind blowing鈥� as Dean Moylan correctly predicted, the impact that the events will have on the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election was minimal. 鈥淚f anything, this act of breaching the Capitol has slowed things down, but it won鈥檛 stop the inevitability of these certified votes being counted, and it won鈥檛 stop the inevitability that on January 20 at noon, the 12th Amendment says that the term of the current president is over. That will happen no matter what,鈥� she told .
In that same story, Anthony M. Kennedy Professor of Law Leslie Gielow Jacobs was asked about the events. She explained that the right to free speech is 鈥渁 cherished right that we have in the United States 鈥� and that includes the right to assemble and the right to protest and to criticize the government. But we鈥檙e not allowed to trespass on government property, we鈥檙e not allowed to take over a street if we haven鈥檛 received a permit to do so, [and] you couldn鈥檛 storm the Capitol for any reason.鈥�
In a with Fox 40鈥檚 Martina Del Bonta, Dean Moylan answered questions about a proposal to draft new articles of impeachment and calls for the Vice President and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. Dean Moylan said that if impeached and convicted, President Trump would be banned from running for federal office in the future, and she noted that he could still be impeached even after leaving office if the process took longer than the two weeks remaining on the current president鈥檚 term.
When asked if the events that unfolded on January 6 warranted invoking the 25th Amendment, Dean Moylan said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 enough if the Vice President and the requisite amount of the Cabinet, two-thirds, say that it鈥檚 enough. The problem is that we鈥檝e never seen the 25th Amendment used in this way.
