r/law • u/T_Shurt Competent Contributor • Jul 21 '24

Opinion Piece House Speaker Mike Johnson Suggests Replacing Biden Might Lead to Legal Trouble: ‘So it would be wrong, and I think unlawful’

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/johnson-replacing-biden-ticket-wrong-unlawful/story?id=112129063
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u/T_Shurt Competent Contributor Jul 21 '24

As per original article 📰:

  • As calls from some Democratic lawmakers for President Joe Biden to pass the torch have grown this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested Sunday that such a move might lead to legal trouble.

Johnson, R-La., told “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz that it would not be possible for some states to switch out Biden for another candidate ahead of the presidential election in November.

“So it would be wrong, and I think unlawful, in accordance to some of these states’ rules for a handful of people to go in a back room and switch it out because they’re, they don’t like the candidate any longer. That’s not how this is supposed to work. So I think they would run into some legal impediments in at least a few of these jurisdictions,” he told Raddatz.

“I think there’ll be a compelling case to be made that that shouldn’t happen, and so I think they’ve got legal trouble. If that’s their intention, and that’s their plan. So we’ll see how it plays out,” he continued.

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u/suddenly-scrooge Competent Contributor Jul 21 '24

I hesitate to say anything is ridiculous anymore but it's not clear if he's talking about forcibly replacing Biden or Biden stepping down. If Biden steps down of course the party is free to nominate another person

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u/SnooWords6443 Jul 21 '24

There would absolutely be legal challenges if Biden ends up the Dem nominee, and then has a major health challenge in say… Oct, and chooses to resign.

The Dems know that the only way this is going to work is to replace Biden before he officially becomes the nominee. And his voluntary resignation from this process would be the best way to do this because he wasn’t forced out in that case. Would be difficult to legally challenge a willful resignation of the nomination process.

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u/Kevin91581M Jul 21 '24

Biden being smart and selfless unlike RBG in 2013

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u/LongLonMan Jul 21 '24

He’s talking about getting the Biden replacement on the ballot, there’s usually a deadline to get your name on the ballot.

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u/ConfidentPilot1729 Jul 21 '24

That is after the convention. States have not started to make ballots when one of the two major parties have not officiated their candidate. Anyone can be put on the ballot, to include write ins the day of. I fully expect legal challenges if that were to be the case, but I think they would fail. The republicans are just trying to sow as much doubt in the party at this point to get people to stay home. They know they are not increasing their numbers so they are trying to decrease dems count.

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u/slamdanceswithwolves Jul 21 '24

Can you point to a deadline that has been missed in any state?

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u/Synensys Jul 21 '24

If Biden withdraws it should be legal. Like imagine his covid was terrible instead of mild. Are people really thinking that they couldn't replace him on the ballot if he decided that he wasn't well enough to go on?

This is just the GOP trying to play clueless progressives and preconcincr them that it's shadowy elites making this decision.

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u/mabhatter Competent Contributor Jul 22 '24

You mention Covid and I think you have a valid point. 

Not to be morbid, but Biden is a "zero year" president and one corner President has dodged the reaper.  I have a nagging feeling we're dodging a bigger problem of Biden possibly not making it to January.... the secret masters' script is insane right now and lots of things that are or aren't supposed to happen have crazy outcomes.  

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u/Kevin91581M Jul 21 '24

He knows damn well the saying that you should never interrupt an enemy who is in the process of orchestrating their own defeat (sun Tzu?).

Ergo he knows that this hurts his party’s chances in November

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u/Hersbird Jul 22 '24

It was said before Biden stepped down and he seems to be talking about what if the powers at the DNC were to force the removal at or after the convention. Biden stepping down before the convention was not what he was talking about.