In 1919 and 1921, the House of Representatives refused to seat Rep.-elect Victor Beger, an Austrian-born socialist from Milwaukee and newspaper editor, on grounds he was in violation of section 3 of the 14th Amendment. That provision bars persons from holding office if they were previously sworn to uphold the Constitution and subsequently engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the U.S., or gave aid and comfort to the enemy.
Berger, in his newspaper articles, sympathized with the German cause during World War I. He was convicted of sedition in February 1919 under the 1917 Espionage Act for giving aid and comfort to the enemy and sentenced to 20-years in prison.
In November 1919, the House, by resolution, refused to accept his credentials and declared him ineligible to take his seat (as it did again in 1921). However, in 1921 the Supreme Court reversed his conviction on grounds of “judicial bias.” He was subsequently elected to three consecutive House terms in the 1920s.
Berger was the first person against whom the “insurrection clause” was invoked by Congress since the Reconstruction Era when it was incorporated as part of the 14th Amendment in 1868. It was revoked for most ex-Confederates by the 1872 Amnesty Act.
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