Right-Wing Think Tank Floats Blocking Democrats From Taking Their Seats

A right-wing think tank has published a plan that would let Congress refuse to seat Democrats who win their elections. The Center for Renewing America post, titled 'Can Congress Seat a Member-Elect Who Vows to Destroy our Constitution?', claims winning candidates tied to what it calls a 'Red-Green Alliance' between 'neo-Marxist progressives and anti-Western Muslims' can and should be blocked from taking office. The piece was written by Benjamin Osborne, a Georgetown Law graduate serving as the group's legal fellow.

The CRA isn't a fringe outfit. It was founded by Russell Vought, an architect of Project 2025 who now runs the Office of Management and Budget. Vought has called himself and his allies 'radical constitutionalists,' while critics point to his record of impounding and delaying funds Congress approved — including a $5 billion foreign aid freeze last year and a clawback of more than $800 million this year. Maine senator Susan Collins said in late September that the clawback may violate the Impoundment Control Act. Vought once said Muslims have a 'deficient theology' and 'do not know God.' The CRA did not respond to a request for comment.

An earlier CRA publication by executive director Wade Miller named names: the 'Squad' — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar — plus New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. It accused them of an ideology 'dedicated to destroying capitalism, Christianity, and the Western political tradition.' None of those politicians have called themselves Marxists, though some, including Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani, identify as Democratic Socialists. El-Sayed's campaign didn't answer questions about the piece.

Legal experts aren't impressed. NYU law professor Richard Pildes called it 'another attempt to contort and twist basic norms that have never been used this way for their own partisan purposes.' Brown University's Corey Brettschneider said targeting a politician's religion would be even harder to pull off, since the Constitution explicitly bans a religious test for office. 'Clearly what they're doing is floating it to see if it will stick,' he said.

USC political scientist Christian Grose says the strategy's odds hinge on the margins. A one- or two-seat Senate win could invite disputed results; a four-seat blowout makes it 'more preposterous.' In the House, a Republican majority could simply vote to refuse seating, as it did to Harlem's Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in 1967. A court injunction might decide who actually gets sworn in when the new Congress starts in 2027 — 'a Congress versus courts showdown,' Grose said. Pildes was blunter: 'This isn't going to happen.'

Still, Brettschneider says the attempt matters even if it fails, pointing to the administration's repeated pushes to charge former FBI director James Comey. 'We absolutely need to take it seriously because Trump has been dismantling the guardrails and the norms that are supposed to protect against this,' he said. 'Even if they don't get away with it directly, threatening and shutting down opponents creates fear.'