An Alaska judge declined to bar an Oath Keepers member from public office, ruling that while the organization tried to violently overthrow the U.S. government, state representative David Eastman (R-Wasilla) did not take part in those efforts (read story here).
In September 2022, a federal judge removed a Nevada county commissioner from office for participating in the Capitol riot, on the grounds that event was an “insurrection” (read details here). But the case against Rep. Eastman was much weaker (see story here).
While Eastman is obnoxious (see profile here and article here), and participated in Trump’s Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally and then walked to the Capitol, there’s no evidence he entered the building or participated in the riot, and he hasn’t been charged by the federal prosecutors handling Capitol riot cases.
The legal case against Eastman was based on his membership in an organization which did play a prominent role in the Capitol riot and whose leader has been convicted of seditious conspiracy.
But the Constitution’s Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of association, and applying the Alaska constitution’s insurrection clause to Eastman required proving he participated in an overt act or conspiracy (read clause here, and see article here). The citizen plaintiffs seeking to disqualify him from office were unable to do that.
This case harkens back to the red-baiting era of the 1940s and 1950s, when people were persecuted and blacklisted for their associations, beliefs, and speech. No matter how much you may dislike Eastman — and I intensely dislike him — our country should not go down that road again.
When I originally posted this article two weeks ago, I predicted the judge would rule that Eastman isn’t an insurrectionist merely because of his Oath Keepers membership.
A number of similar cases around the country have failed, and so far the Nevada case stands alone.