With polls showing a Democratic blue wave in the midterms on Tuesday, an influential right-wing think tank has proposed a way to prevent some victorious Democrats from taking their seats. Constitutional experts say any such notion would be dismissed in court.
Last month the Center for Renewing America put out a post to that effect. Founded by Russell Vought, a Project 2025 architect who is now budget director for President Donald Trump, the group contends that those it deems part of a "Red-Green Alliance" of "neo-Marxist progressives and anti-Western Muslims" are not in a position to give a genuine oath of support to the Constitution and should be kept out of Congress, according to WIRED. Vought was roundly criticized at his first-term confirmation over remarks that Muslims possess a "deficient theology."
Benjamin Osborne, a legal fellow with the Center, is the author of the piece. Wade Miller, the executive director, had earlier put Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar of the progressive "Squad," as well as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed, in the same category. While some are democratic socialists, none identify as Marxists.
Corey Brettschneider of Brown University called both posts "an attack on the Constitution" in a conversation with WIRED. He said a judge would have little trouble dismissing such a case and shutting it down. To go after Muslim lawmakers would be all the more difficult, he said, given the Constitution's express prohibition on religious tests for office. Richard Pildes, a law professor at NYU, was more direct: "This isn't going to happen."
When the House declined to seat Harlem Democrat Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in 1967, as WIRED points out, the Supreme Court put an end to it two years later in Powell v. McCormack, holding that the House cannot turn away a member-elect in good standing with the Constitution's age, citizenship and residency rules.
That does not mean it can be dismissed, however. Christian Grose, a political scientist at USC, warned that if the Senate goes to the Democrats by a narrow margin of a seat or two, Republicans may be inclined to contest the outcome. The ensuing legal battle could run into the new Congress and set the courts and lawmakers at odds. A more decisive Democratic victory would render the plan far less viable.
Brettschneider thinks the think tank is putting the idea out there "to see if it will stick," much as the administration has gone after former FBI Director James Comey a third time and again despite the slim prospect of a conviction. In his view, even when they do not succeed, such moves can be intimidating to one's opposition.
