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By Chris Matthews
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Republican lawmakers are considering challenging newly elected socialists from taking their seats in Congress after next week's midterm elections.
Republican Representative Keith Self of Texas has suggested that members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) should be prevented from taking the oath of office if they support replacing the Constitution.
Fellow Republican Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee has also threatened to challenge Darializa Avila Chevalier, a socialist Democratic candidate in New York, if she wins her election.
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The proposals could see Republicans object to individual members-elect before they are sworn into Congress in January.
Under the proposed tactic, a lawmaker would challenge whether a newly elected representative genuinely intends to uphold the Constitution.
The House could then debate the objection and vote on whether the member should be permitted to take the oath.
However, the plan faces a major legal obstacle.
In 1969, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress cannot refuse to seat a duly elected member who meets the Constitution's requirements for office.
Those requirements concern age, citizenship and residency, rather than political beliefs.
The ruling means any attempt to exclude an elected socialist on ideological grounds would likely face a legal challenge.
"Anyone who has personally embraced the destruction of the Constitution has no business being sworn in to uphold it," Self told Fox News.
He argued that lawmakers should not be permitted to pledge allegiance to a Constitution they intend to replace.
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The DSA's political program advocates replacing the existing Constitution with a new democratic framework, although membership of the organization does not necessarily mean an individual candidate endorses every aspect of its platform.
Several DSA-backed candidates have won Democratic primaries ahead of Tuesday's elections.
They include Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez in New York, Melat Kiros in Colorado, Donavan McKinney in Michigan and Christopher Rabb in Pennsylvania.
Existing socialist members of Congress, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, are also seeking reelection.
There is no indication that Republicans intend to challenge every DSA-backed candidate.
Burchett's threat against Avila Chevalier follows controversy over a deleted social media post from 2019 in which she said she had wiped her hands on an American flag because she did not have a napkin.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has previously rejected suggestions that Republicans would refuse to seat Democrats who win their elections.
Speaking to reporters in Iowa earlier this month, Johnson described the suggestion as a "nonsense narrative."
"We are going to follow the law," he said.
The House has the power to expel members with a two-thirds majority, but that is separate from refusing to seat someone who has been elected.
Whether Republicans attempt to challenge any incoming lawmakers will depend on the election results and who controls the House when the new Congress convenes in January.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Gray R. Thomas
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