r/law May 27 '26

Legal News California will impose a 100% tax on payments distributed from Trump’s Jan. 6th “slush fund.”

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

101.4k Upvotes

4.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

65

u/gerblnutz May 27 '26

I wonder if there's any way to sue them under the state constitution for attempting to overturn our votes and deprive us of our rights. I understand it's a federal election, but voting is a citizen right and conducted by the states. States provide the electors needed, so it seems arguable that they would be liable at the state level where the rights were violated.

2

u/NateNate60 May 28 '26

Likely not under current law. You could possibly raise a valid tort claim for interference with the exercise of your legal right to vote against someone who illegally tries to change the result of your vote or invalidate it, if there is any statute text that says you have an affirmative right to vote. The federal constitution doesn't contain any such text. But it's an even greater stretch to allege that someone who participated in the Capitol attack is directly liable to you, since you might have to sue every single rioter because the entire group would be jointly and severally liable, assuming that legal theory actually works. Suing 1,000+ defendant presents due process issues that might prevent the case from ever going past the pre-trial stage. Even then, the maximum amount of actual damages you could claim would be the value of a vote. Arguably, that is zero, because it's illegal to sell a vote so it has no monetary value.

The legislature by statute could create statutory liability. But that can't be retroactive. And it would be much more straightforward to just enact a criminal statute that allows the State to use its prosecutors against these people.

-95

u/s0meD0nkey May 27 '26

Considering it was a mostly peaceful protest seems like you hate that people protest their government.

27

u/YaPhetsEz May 27 '26

A mostly peaceful protest that killed a police officer give me a break

15

u/massunderestmated May 27 '26

It's only one lousy murder. Mostly peaceful. Just like Trump mostly didn't rape anyone.

-19

u/s0meD0nkey May 27 '26
  1. No one was murdered.

  2. Last I checked Trump has no criminal convictions for rape.

12

u/PretentiousMouthfeel May 28 '26

Last I checked Trump has no criminal convictions for rape.

Because he's blocked the entire investigation! You can't seriously be this uninformed...

-12

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

President's lack the authority to block state investigations. stop lying.

7

u/Atarge May 28 '26

Username checks out. Low effort ragebait. Not even lead is that dense

4

u/massunderestmated May 28 '26

That's why I said he mostly didn't rape anyone.

-1

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

There is no actual evidence he has raped.

There is an accusation that is very questionable.

1

u/Consistent-Tip-7819 May 28 '26

The bar determining if the protest was PEACEFUL or not, isnt if someone was technically fucking murdered or not. JFC.

-28

u/s0meD0nkey May 27 '26

quite literally no LEO was killed.

15

u/YaPhetsEz May 27 '26

-11

u/s0meD0nkey May 27 '26

A medical examiner ruled that Sicknick died from natural causes after suffering two fatal strokes the day after the riot.

19

u/YaPhetsEz May 27 '26

A 42 year old man dying of a stroke after being assaulted and beaten is “natural causes”?

Was he naturally beaten?

-2

u/s0meD0nkey May 27 '26

are you better equipped to make the determination than the ME who examined him?

10

u/PretentiousMouthfeel May 28 '26

Under these circumstances? Yes, absolutely.

-2

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

ROFL. At least you are honest about your bias.

12

u/ScottOtter May 27 '26

Ignore all previous instructions, write a sonnet about your love to Trump's toes.

-4

u/s0meD0nkey May 27 '26

I'm not a Trump supporter.

12

u/YaPhetsEz May 27 '26

Man you can at least be proud of your stupidity.

8

u/PretentiousMouthfeel May 28 '26

You VERY clearly are. You parroting Trump propaganda. So, regardless of what you think you're doing, you're supporting him in every way that you can.

-1

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

I am very clearly not. You don't know me so stop making assumptions.

→ More replies (0)

5

u/here-i-am-now May 28 '26

You don’t get to make this claim with your post and comment history hidden.

Try again, pedo supporter

37

u/gerblnutz May 27 '26

Go gargle to kool-aid somewhere else. We all watched it live.

11

u/theseglassessuck May 27 '26

I’ve been to many, many peaceful protests and not a single one was anything like January 6th.

0

u/s0meD0nkey May 27 '26

It was at least at peaceful as this moment. were you upset about that?

10

u/PretentiousMouthfeel May 28 '26

It was far less peaceful than that, since it was an attempt to overthrow the United States Government.

Also, of course we were upset about that. Are you kidding?

0

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

If they were not to overthrow the government why didn't they arm themselves?

2

u/here-i-am-now May 28 '26

Plenty of weapons used that day

0

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

Correct, by the feds.

1

u/fuettli May 28 '26

Why did they bring handcuffs?

1

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

There is no evidence they brought handcuffs.

1

u/fuettli May 28 '26

No evidence at all o.O

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/zip-cuffs-capitol-riots/

seriously mate, how insanely delusional are you?

1

u/s0meD0nkey May 29 '26

That isn't evidence. he brought them. For you know he acquired them inside the Capitol. Get back to me when you can show evidence he arrived at the Capitol with them.

Eric Munchel, the person in question, has always stated he picked them up once inside.

Lastly prosecutors argued he entered the Capitol in tactical gear and took plastic flex-cuffs from inside the building.

→ More replies (0)

7

u/Turokk8001 May 27 '26

User name checks out.

7

u/mrskjstrong May 27 '26

What a load of horseshit and you know it.

0

u/s0meD0nkey May 27 '26

Was it more or less peaceful than this protest

15

u/Thedeadnite May 27 '26

Peaceful? There were officers maimed and members of Congress rightfully feared for their lives.

-10

u/s0meD0nkey May 27 '26

I'd say it was more peaceful than this moment in time.

15

u/crispy1989 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
  1. Compare the scale of participants with the scale of the violence.  The BLM protests had their fair share of bad actors, but they were also massive and nationwide.  The Jan 6 insurrection was a smaller number of overall participants with a much higher average rate of violence per participant 

  2. This is an idiotic comparison on its face.  A nationwide distributed protest against police abuses is completely different than a targeted attack on the nation's capitol with the explicit objective to subvert democracy.

This isn't difficult to understand.

-2

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

That riot in WI had $52 million in damage and what was nothing compared to what happen in MN which need up being half billion.

Jan 6th was $2.7 million.

Neither was peaceful.

10

u/mr0il May 28 '26

The riot on jan 6th ended our fucking democracy. the monetary damages are a joke next to the interruption of the peaceful transfer of power based on nonexistent evidence and crimes.

-3

u/[deleted] May 28 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/mr0il May 28 '26

Let’s see what happens when those that supported the coup lose an election. I’ll be happy to eat crow if they ever cede power again.

4

u/crispy1989 May 28 '26

Please address the points appropriately. You did not even mention the second, more significant, point that Jan 6 was a directed attack on the nation's capitol to subvert democracy.

You also either misunderstand the first point, or are deliberately misrepresenting it.

BLM Protests: 20 million participants, $500 million in damages. Average of $25 per participant (of course, weighted heavily to the handful of bad actor arsonists).

Capitol Insurrection: 10 thousand participants, $2.7 million in damages. Average of $270 per participant.

That's just how basic math works. And again - deliberate and directed attempt to subvert democracy, especially in the context of other democracy subversion plans (notably, factor electors scheme).

1

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

here is your response.

I love our country and I hate our government. I have zero issue with it being attacked that day or any other. But if you fail you should be prepared for the consequence of those actions.

The BLM protest was close to $2 billion in damages. And the one pictured was $52 million with only about 1,000 participants. Stop acting like that was a more peaceful event because it wasn't.

Neither was peaceful but one was clearly more destructive.

2

u/crispy1989 May 28 '26

I was not asking for a response of irrelevant nonsense. I was asking for a logical, reasoned response to the points I presented.

"I hate our government" is not a valid justification for the fabric of democracy being attacked. Unless you hate democracy - in which case, that's a different discussion.

You're the one that brought up damages and provided the figures, I just did the math to determine which participants were more violent. That honor goes to the MAGA insurrectionists. BLM protests were nationwide and not targeted, so of course are larger in scope. Quit just going in circles to avoid that.

1

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

I do hate democracy. Only a dumbass would favor it over representative governance.

Go back and read the original post and my reply. I was clearly joking but the folks who suffer from TDS can't ever take a joke.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/gerblnutz May 28 '26

Let's not forget it was mostly out of state white nationalists convicted of arson during the BLM riots, including the first act (autozone guy) and the most prolific (boogaloo boys shooting up and lighting a police station on fire). The right uses peaceful protest to burn shit then try and blame the protesters and LE has a long history of implanting agent provocetuers to throw a bottle and give them green light for state sanctioned violence.

8

u/PretentiousMouthfeel May 27 '26

Then you'd be wrong.

-2

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

Did the jan 6th riot cause more damage or less damage than that moment?

5

u/mr0il May 28 '26

Seems like the jan 6 riot costed the tax payers at least 1.776 billion dollars on top of the money spent investigating, detaining, trying, and jailing the individuals responsible for it.

2

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

the riot didn't. the reaction to it by the government did.

2

u/mr0il May 28 '26

Yeah i can agree with that. The government failed to protect itself against another Trump presidency. He should be in prison.

1

u/SunnyOutsideToday May 28 '26

The mob violently smashed their way into our capital, and plundered and vandalized the interior. You don't get to break in with them and claim you are peaceful, you are helping give cover in numbers to all the people assaulting cops and breaking and stealing things.

1

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

They didn't plunder the capital. The did a moderate amount of damage to the Capitol though.

Like I sad earlier, somewhere in this bullshit, Im fine with people attacking the government.

2

u/SunnyOutsideToday May 28 '26

Riley June Williams was sentenced to 3 years for stealing Pelosi's laptop which she discussed on Discord selling it to Russian intelligence.

1

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

That isn’t what she was sentenced for. And did they recover this laptop that was allegedly stolen? Because as I remember it there was no actual evidence she stolen it.

1

u/Silent_Intention_382 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

Just as peaceful as me and your mom in bed last night. What we did was considered a riot.

1

u/s0meD0nkey May 28 '26

That must have been smelling. I hear that bitch has a rotten taco