The Continuous Action explores the ongoing labor of democracy through conversations with those who do that work every day.
Join Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, as he talks with journalists, activists, government leaders, and philanthropists about their work — and what it takes to hold our government accountable to the people it serves.
The inspiration for the title “The Continuous Action” comes from the admonition by John Lewis that “freedom is not a state; it is an act.” Speaking of our duty as citizens, he proclaimed: “Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.”
The Continuous Action is sponsored by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), hosted by Walt Shaub, and produced by Myron Kaplan.
Stay tuned on the latest from POGO: pogo.org/subscribe
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Continuous Action explores the ongoing labor of democracy through conversations with those who do that work every day.
Join Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, as he talks with journalists, activists, government leaders, and philanthropists about their work — and what it takes to hold our government accountable to the people it serves.
The inspiration for the title “The Continuous Action” comes from the admonition by John Lewis that “freedom is not a state; it is an act.” Speaking of our duty as citizens, he proclaimed: “Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.”
The Continuous Action is sponsored by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), hosted by Walt Shaub, and produced by Myron Kaplan.
Stay tuned on the latest from POGO: pogo.org/subscribe
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Is Donald Trump constitutionally disqualified from running for president?
In this episode of The Continuous Action, Walt Shaub and Virginia Heffernan examine a provision of the Constitution that bans insurrectionists from holding public office. The “disqualification clause” was ratified with the rest of the 14th Amendment just after the Civil War, and it hadn’t been used in the last hundred years — until a recent court case.
In 2022, a group of New Mexico citizens filed a suit alleging that a local county commissioner who was involved in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol should be disqualified from holding office. A state judge agreed, finding that the commissioner’s actions on January 6 qualified as having “engaged in … insurrection.” The judge banned him from ever holding office again.
To learn more about the case, and what it might mean for others involved in the events of January 6, Virginia and Walt talk to POGO’s own Liz Hempowicz, who co-authored a report on applications of the disqualification clause. They also catch up with one of the lawyers who tried the Griffin case, Donald Sherman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Listen in to learn more about how this important part of the 14th Amendment works, who it might affect, what happened in the New Mexico case, and what’s coming next for candidate Trump.
For transcript and show notes, visit pogo.org/podcasts/the-continuous-action
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.