After former president Donald Trump incited a riot at the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, continued to object to election results from several states and could face serious consequences. There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, and MU School of Law professor Frank Bowman says Hawley’s claims are legally unfounded.
“The substantive problem with his objection to the Pennsylvania results, which is particularly ironic for a guy who claims to be both a constitutional lawyer and a constitutional conservative of the Federalist variety, is that somehow or other, [Hawley claims] it is the province of the United States Senate to decide whether or not the governmental institutions of the state of Pennsylvania made the correct interpretations of their own law about how to run a Pennsylvania election,” Bowman said.
Bowman says that Hawley, who taught at the MU School of Law from 2011-2016 , claims it is the job of the United States Senate to tell both the Pennsylvania Legislature and Supreme Court what the proper interpretation of the Pennsylvania Constitution is, which Bowman called “preposterous on its face.”
The process for selecting a U.S. president is outlined in Article II of the Constitution, but the Constitution only states that Congress will tally the electors from each state after the Electoral College has cast their votes. Congress dictates how this process is completed through the Electoral Count Act of 1887. This law states that objections made to a slate of electors from a state must be signed by one representative and one senator. These objections can either be due to a state submitting two slates of electors — which happened during the 1876 election — or if a senator and representative claim the electoral results were not “lawfully certified” by their states.
After the objection is made, both houses of Congress have a maximum of two hours to debate over the objection before voting to accept or reject the state’s electors. Justin Dyer, director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, says many of these rules are created by Congress themselves.
“Often, a lot of these things are developed either through tradition [of the] law,” Dyer said.
After the insurrection on the Capitol and his continued objections, Hawley released a statement on Twitter calling for an end to the violence and thanking law enforcement officials at the Capitol.
The MU Student Bar Association called for Hawley to resign immediately in a statement on Jan. 6, stating his actions “severely damaged the reputation of our institution.”
It isn’t just the MU Bar Association that has called on Sen. Hawley to resign. The Mizzou College Democrats have joined in solidarity with the College Democrats of Missouri to not only call on Hawley’s resignation but a formal investigation as well. Emily Lower, president of Mizzou College Democrats, said she was disappointed in Hawley’s actions.
“I worked on Claire McCaskill’s campaign in 2018, and this exact behavior we’re seeing right now is what everyone on my team was afraid Josh Hawley would do,” Lower said. “It was extremely disappointing and infuriating to see somebody that should know better not only incite it but still refuse to take any type of responsibility.”
The Mizzou College Republicans denounced the violence that occurred at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and said all involved in the riots should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Mizzou College Republicans Executive Director Anthony Garcia said the club continues to support Hawley and all Missouri Republican candidates.
“Our exec board in the past has continued to support all Missouri [Republican] elected candidates and will continue to do so in the future,” Garcia said.
The House of Representatives impeached President Trump for a second time on Jan. 13 under the notion of “incitement of insurrection.” It is unclear what will happen to Sen. Hawley.
“From the perspective of how this particularly resonates within the University of Missouri community, it is sad to say that somebody who once had an office across the hallway from me manipulated the passions of people for his own political benefit,” Bowman said. “And that should never be forgotten and never be forgiven.”
_Edited by Eli Hoff | ehoff@themaneater.com_