Dear Friend,
One of the curiosities of the recently decided Trump v. Anderson (the ballot-access Trump-related Section-3-of-the-Fourteenth Amendment case) was that the per curiam opinion stated:
Th[e] [Enforcement] Act [of 1870] authorized federal district attorneys to bring civil actions in federal court to remove anyone holding nonlegislative office—federal or state—in violation of Section 3, and made holding or attempting to hold office in violation of Section 3 a federal crime. §§14, 15, 16 Stat. 143–144 (repealed, 35 Stat. 1153–1154 [1909], 62 Stat. 992–993 [1948]).
[601 U.S. 100, 114; slip op. at 10 (emphasis added).]
The problem is that the per curiam opinion asserts that Sections 14 to 16 of the 1870 federal statute were repealed by one or more subsequent federal statutes, but the pages cited for the repealing statute(s) 35 Stat. 1153–54 (1909) and 62 Stat. 992–993 (1948) list scores of statutes in an extensive list and in an extensive table. So the public (including me) does not know which statute(s) repealed Sections 14 to 16. I do not believe any of the Justices’ law clerks found the reported repealing statute(s)—law clerks do not have this level of detailed expertise. I expect it was staff, maybe at the library? Any idea who I can ask?
My query does NOT involve any impending litigation.
Thank you,
Seth
Trump v. Anderson, U.S. Sup. Ct. No. 23-719, 2024 WL 899207, 2024 U.S. LEXIS 1190, 144 S. Ct. 662, 601 U.S. 100 (U.S. Mar. 4, 2024) (per curiam), <https://supremecourt.gov/opinions/slipopinion/23>, <https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/23-719.html>;
Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Trump v Anderson (2024)—A Curiosity,’ New Reform Club (Oct. 29, 2024, 5:44 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2024/10/trump-v-anderson-2024a-curiosity.html>;
