Composite 3.79 / 10, weighted per the Constitutional Weight Schedule.
Below the 700 bar, Author's Verdict: not supported.
Support withheld. Two confirmed capping severity findings, Criterion 8 (the fake-elector / alternate-slate effort to overturn the certified 2020 election) and Criterion 10 (the sustained enemy-making rhetoric, crystallized in the mockery of a colleague's assassination), foreclose support regardless of composite. The record's genuine strengths (constitutional substance, no office-driven enrichment, and the real mitigation of abandoning the scheme and voting to certify) are weighed honestly and keep the conduct scores off the absolute floor, but capping conduct that strikes at the oath cannot be cleared by a composite.
The Meadows text record documents a sustained, roughly two-month effort (Dec 2020-Jan 2021) to have state legislatures appoint alternate/fake elector slates to overturn the certified 2020 result, the fake-electors conduct the standard names as process subversion. The legal-on-its-face procedural theory was aimed at defeating the constitutional purpose of a certified election. Material mitigation is weighed: when no fraud evidence surfaced Lee abandoned the effort, did NOT sign the Texas v. Pennsylvania amicus, and voted to certify on Jan 6, which keeps the conduct measures off the absolute 2-floor but does not erase the documented subversive effort, which is itself the capping conduct.
Evidence: Washington Post, Lee worked to overturn 2020 election, texts show · PBS NewsHour, Texts reveal Lee's efforts to overturn 2020 election
The June 2025 social-media posts following the assassination of MN Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband ('This is what happens When Marxists don't get their way,' 'Marxism kills,' 'Nightmare on Waltz Street') mocked a murdered colleague and cast political opponents as a murderous out-group. NBC News characterizes the inflammatory-post-then-delete behavior as a recurring pattern rather than a single heated line. The posts were deleted under bipartisan pressure without apology. This is sustained enemy-making directed at opponents and citizens, not policy heat.
Evidence: NBC News, Lee deletes social-media posts about Minnesota shootings · Minnesota Reformer, Lee outrages Minnesotans with jabs about Hortman murder
A capping flag forecloses an Author's Verdict of "supported" regardless of the composite; a terminal flag suspends the number entirely. Conduct is weighed on documented evidence, applied symmetrically. How flags work →
No military service record. Lee's pre-Senate career was legal, Assistant U.S. Attorney, law clerk to Judge (later Justice) Samuel Alito, and private practice. Background is context, not a score.
The 14 measures
Each measure is scored 0–10 against an anchored example, with a cited source. Hover/expand why? for the reasoning.
| # | Measure | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| M01 | Duty to Constitution & Rule of Law | 3 | why?Driven to the process-subversion floor by Criterion 8. The Meadows text record (Dec 8 2020 'If a very small handful of states were to have their legislatures appoint alternative slates of delegates, there could be a path'; Jan 3 2021 'unless these states submit new slates of Trump electors... we do not') documents sustained, active effort over roughly two months to construct alternate/fake elector slates to keep a defeated incumbent in power against a certified result, the precise fake-electors conduct the standard names as process subversion. Genuine and weighed mitigation: when no fraud evidence materialized he abandoned the scheme, did NOT sign the Texas v. Pennsylvania amicus, and ultimately voted to certify on Jan 6. The abandonment and certification vote keep him off the absolute 2-floor but do not erase the documented subversive effort. Floor band per the capping rule. [source] |
| M02 | Party Over Country | 3 | why?Conduct-only read of cross-aisle willingness, not policy. Lee ranks among the five LEAST bipartisan senators on the lifetime Lugar/McCourt Index, a sustained, documented unwillingness to co-author across the aisle. Partial offset: a handful of genuine bipartisan instruments (Email Privacy Act with Wyden; criminal-justice and surveillance-reform work with Durbin/Leahy over the years) show the capacity exists. Low but not floor, because the bipartisan instances are real rather than performative. [source] |
| M03 | Persons of Equal Worth | 3 | why?Persons-of-equal-worth measure, pulled down by Criterion 10. The June 2025 posts mocking the assassination of MN Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband ('This is what happens When Marxists don't get their way,' 'Marxism kills,' 'Nightmare on Waltz Street') cast political opponents as a murderous out-group and made sport of a slain colleague's death. NBC characterizes the delete-after-backlash rhetoric as a recurring pattern, not a one-off. This is anti-belonging conduct directed at fellow citizens and an opposing party writ large. Mitigation: he deleted the posts under bipartisan pressure, but deletion without apology is damage-control, not contrition. [source] |
| M04 | Weaponization of Justice | 3 | why?Abuse-of-power-against-rivals measure. Criterion 8 hits here as well as M01: the effort to have state legislatures appoint alternate elector slates was a use of legal-on-its-face procedural argument to defeat the constitutional purpose of a certified election, the opposing candidate's lawful victory. Mitigation as in M01 (abandonment, certification vote). No documented weaponization of investigative or prosecutorial state power against a private rival; the abuse is process-directed, which keeps it at 3 rather than the absolute floor. [source] |
| M05 | Incitement / Anti-Belonging | 3 | why?Rhetorical-restraint measure, conduct-only. The Minnesota assassination posts are a documented failure of restraint at the gravest possible moment, joking about a murdered legislator and assigning collective blame to 'Marxists' the night after the killing. NBC frames it as part of a pattern of inflammatory-post-then-delete behavior. Real but partial mitigation: the deletions show some awareness that lines were crossed. Low. [source] |
| M06 | Fiduciary Conduct | 5 | why?Fiduciary-of-the-public measure. No Senate Ethics sanction, no STOCK Act late-disclosure finding against Lee personally, no individual-stock self-dealing found in the disclosure record (holdings are mutual funds and a credit-union account). The drag is reputational rather than adjudicated: the 2020-21 election-subversion effort is itself a breach of the duty to the constitutional process, weighed here as an appearance/judgment concern rather than re-counting the capping conduct. Middle. [source] |
| M07 | Duty to Call Out | 3 | why?Active-duty / call-out-your-own-side measure, the higher bar is calling out one's OWN side at cost. The record runs the other way: rather than publicly check the fraud claims he privately knew were unsupported, CNN reporting describes him publicly obscuring what the texts show he understood. He did not pay a cost to call out his own side at the moment it mattered; he worked within it for two months. The eventual certification vote is a quiet correct act, not an at-cost public call-out. Low. [source] |
| M08 | The Discretion Test | 4 | why?Discretion test, what is done with latitude when little compels it. Given wide discretion in Dec 2020, Lee spent it ('14 hours a day for the last week') searching for a procedural path to overturn the result before backing off. The discretion was used, for a stretch, toward the wrong end. Partial credit because when the factual basis collapsed he exercised the discretion to stop and certify rather than press on like colleagues who objected. Below middle. [source] |
| M09 | The No-Camera Test | 4 | why?Private/public-consistency measure. There is a documented gap: privately Lee told Meadows the effort would 'end badly... unless we have the Constitution on our side' and grew skeptical of the fraud claims, while his public 'we're not a democracy' posture and silence fed the same narrative he privately doubted. The gap is real but narrower than a wholesale two-faced record; the texts and public stance share a constitutional framing. Below middle. [source] |
| M10 | Constituent-vs-Donor Vote | 5 | why?Office-as-public-trust vs faction. Lee is a productive legislator on his own terms (public-lands, surveillance reform, criminal-justice) and serves Utah's expressed preferences on many issues, which keeps this at the middle. It is held no higher by the faction-over-institution posture of the 2020-21 period and the low cross-aisle index. No office-driven enrichment found. Middle. [source] |
| M11 | Net-Worth Trajectory | 7 | why?Office-attributable-enrichment ONLY. No self-dealing, family-payment, office-information-trade, or foreign-government-revenue conduct is documented. Disclosed assets are mutual funds, a credit-union holding, and book/teaching income (Hachette, Duke), outside-earned and disclosed, not office-leveraged. No individual-stock trading pattern. Raw wealth and policy positions are excluded by rule. Clean on this measure. [source] |
| M12 | Floor Decorum | 4 | why?Respect-for-the-institution measure. Lee invokes constitutional structure rhetorically (the Federalist-Papers framing), which cuts toward institutional seriousness, but the 2020-21 attempt to subvert the certified-election machinery and the corrosive social-media posture cut against honoring the institution over the spectacle. The social-media conduct (mocking a colleague's murder) is the opposite of institutional decorum. Below middle, net. [source] |
| M13 | Lying & Misleading | 4 | why?Truthfulness measure, conduct-only. Lee privately doubted the 2020 fraud claims yet publicly advanced the 'alternate slates' constitutional theory built on them, and amplified the 'far left is murderously violent' framing ('Fact check: TRUE') around the Minnesota killing on thin basis. Not a documented serial-fabrication record, and he privately acknowledged the lack of evidence, which keeps it off the floor. Below middle. [source] |
| M14 | Knowledge Depth | 6 | why?Substance-over-talking-points measure. Lee has genuine command of constitutional and statutory detail (former clerk to Justice Alito, originalist legal background, substantive surveillance and public-lands legislation), real depth, not slogan-trading. That same legal facility was, in 2020-21, turned toward rationalizing a subversive end, which tempers the score. Substance is real; the use of it is the asterisk. Upper-middle. [source] |
Why not higher, the points withheld
The standard is the seat; the ceiling is a perfect 10. Every withheld point traces to documented conduct, weighed where the measures and attributes say it belongs, shown openly here, the same way the earned points are.
| Where | Documented conduct | Mitigation weighed |
|---|---|---|
| M01 | Dec 2020-Jan 2021 Meadows texts document sustained active effort to arrange alternate/fake elector slates to overturn the certified 2020 result ('there could be a path'; 'submit new slates of Trump electors') ↳ Criterion 8 process subversion, fake-electors conduct | Abandoned the effort when no fraud surfaced; did NOT sign the Texas v. PA amicus; voted to certify on Jan 6, keeps him off the absolute 2-floor |
| M03 | June 2025 posts mocking the assassination of MN Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband ('This is what happens When Marxists don't get their way,' 'Marxism kills,' 'Nightmare on Waltz Street') ↳ Criterion 10 enemy-making, anti-belonging directed at opponents/citizens | Deleted the posts under bipartisan pressure, but deletion without apology is damage-control, not contrition |
| M02 | Among the five least-bipartisan senators on the lifetime Lugar/McCourt Bipartisan Index ↳ sustained low cross-aisle co-authorship (conduct, not policy) | Real bipartisan instruments exist (Email Privacy Act w/ Wyden; surveillance/CJ reform), capacity is present |
| M07 | Privately knew the fraud claims were unsupported yet did not pay a cost to call out his own side; CNN reporting describes public obscuring of what the texts show ↳ failure of the active call-out-your-own-side duty at cost | Eventual certification vote is a quiet correct act |
| M09 | Private skepticism of fraud claims vs public 'we're not a democracy' posture that fed the same narrative ↳ private/public-consistency gap | Shared constitutional framing narrows the gap below a wholesale two-faced record |
| M13 | Advanced a public constitutional theory built on fraud claims he privately doubted; amplified 'far left is murderously violent' framing on thin basis ↳ truthfulness drag | Privately acknowledged lack of evidence; not a serial-fabrication record |
| Pillar I | The 2020-21 subversion effort is the inverse of loyalty to the constitutional order and the oath ↳ Trust/Loyalty drag toward Self-Interest | Abandonment + certification vote show a residual line he would not cross |
| Pillar IV | Election-subversion effort + mockery of a colleague's murder are the legacy-defining drags toward Favoritism/Ego ↳ Legacy/Virtue drag | Genuine constitutional substance and the certification vote temper but do not erase |
The Four Pillars, worthy to be followed?
A separate axis from the 14 measures. The measures ask did their conduct meet the standard; the Pillars ask is this someone worthy to be elevated and followed at all. The two can diverge, when they do, the divergence is the finding.
| # | Pillar | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Trust & Loyalty
| 3 | why?Attributes weighed: Loyalty to the oath and the constitutional order, Steadiness, Selflessness. The two-month effort to arrange alternate elector slates to overturn a certified election is a direct drag toward the opposite of loyalty-to-the-order (Self-Interest/Faction). Held above floor only by the documented line he would not finally cross, abandoning the scheme and voting to certify. |
| II | Aspiration & Integrity
| 4 | why?Attributes: Conviction, Authenticity, Self-Reflection, Teachability. Genuine conviction and constitutional seriousness are real (Authenticity, Conviction present). The drag is toward the opposite of Self-Reflection: deleting the Minnesota posts without apology and publicly obscuring what he privately knew show damage-control over contrition. The conviction keeps it just above the protection/legacy pillars. |
| III | Protection & Influence
| 3 | why?Attributes: Protection, Courage in Conflict, Stewardship, Accountability. The influence wielded in 2020-21 was aimed at defeating, not protecting, a constitutional purpose, a drag toward Exploitation-of-process. The Minnesota rhetoric is influence one would not want propagated. Low. |
| IV | Legacy & Virtue
| 3 | why?Attributes: Integrity, Moral Courage, Justice, Love of Truth. The election-subversion effort and the mockery of a murdered colleague are the legacy-defining drags toward Favoritism/Ego/Untruth. Real constitutional substance and the certification vote temper the floor but cannot lift this pillar to the middle. |
| TOTAL: Unfit | 13/40 |
Total 13/40, Failing band. The pillars hold low because the two capping patterns (Criterion 8 process subversion and Criterion 10 enemy-making) bear directly on Trust/Loyalty and Legacy/Virtue, where character is measured most heavily. The certification vote and genuine constitutional substance are the only sustained upward weights.
What the Four Pillars are & the questions behind each →
In their own words
“If a very small handful of states were to have their legislatures appoint alternative slates of delegates, there could be a path.”
Text to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, proposing alternate/fake elector slates to overturn the certified 2020 result · Washington Post / CNN reporting on the Meadows texts · CONTESTED · cite
“This is what happens When Marxists don't get their way.”
X post the night after the assassination of MN Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband; later deleted without apology · NBC News · CONTESTED · cite
“The word 'democracy' appears nowhere in the Constitution, perhaps because our form of government is not a democracy. It's a constitutional republic.”
X post following the vice-presidential debate; defended later as constitutional structure, criticized as pretext · Deseret News · CONTESTED · cite
“I've been spending 14 hours a day for the last week trying to unravel this for him.”
Text to Meadows describing the effort expended trying to find a path to keep Trump in power · PBS NewsHour · CONTESTED · cite
Full personnel file
1. Identity
Michael Shumway Lee (born June 4, 1971). U.S. Senator from Utah since January 2011; senior senator, re-elected 2016 and 2022, term ending January 2029. Before the Senate: law clerk to then-Judge Samuel Alito (Third Circuit) and later to Justice Alito at the Supreme Court, Assistant U.S. Attorney, and private appellate practice. Son of Rex Lee, U.S. Solicitor General under Reagan. Member of the Senate Judiciary and Energy & Natural Resources committees; founder of conservative legal-philosophy initiatives in the Senate. Originalist; a leading congressional voice on constitutional structure, public lands, and surveillance reform.
2. Voting / Legislative Profile
Lugar/McCourt Bipartisan Index: lifetime among the five LEAST bipartisan senators, a sustained low cross-aisle co-authorship record (recorded here as conduct, not as a policy or ideology judgment). DW-NOMINATE places him on the far-right of the chamber (policy axis, not scored). Genuine bipartisan instruments exist nonetheless: the Email Privacy Act with Ron Wyden (D), and surveillance- and criminal-justice-reform work with Democratic co-sponsors over the years. Signature solo work centers on public-lands policy, FISA/Section 702 surveillance reform, and constitutional-structure legislation. The 2020-21 election period is recorded under constitutional_moments and the severity flags, NOT graded on policy.
3. Constitutional Moments
The defining institutional moment is adverse. Dec 2020-Jan 2021: the Meadows text record documents a sustained effort to have state legislatures appoint alternate/fake elector slates to overturn the certified 2020 result, process subversion. The weighed mitigation is real and material: when no fraud evidence surfaced, Lee abandoned the scheme, declined to sign the Texas v. Pennsylvania amicus, and voted to certify the election on Jan 6, 2021, breaking with colleagues who objected. A line approached and, at the end, not crossed, but the documented effort itself is the subversive conduct the standard caps on.
4. Rhetoric & Discourse Profile
The conduct-relevant rhetoric is the June 2025 social-media posts following the assassination of Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, 'This is what happens When Marxists don't get their way,' 'Marxism kills,' and 'Nightmare on Waltz Street', mocking a murdered colleague and assigning collective blame to political opponents. NBC News characterizes the inflammatory-post-then-delete behavior as a pattern. The posts were deleted under bipartisan pressure but not apologized for. The 2020 'we're not a democracy' posts are a separate, lower-grade institutional-rhetoric concern weighed under M12. Sustained enemy-making is the Criterion 10 finding.
5. Fiduciary Profile
No office-attributable enrichment is documented. No Senate Ethics sanction, no STOCK Act late-disclosure finding against Lee personally, and no individual-stock self-dealing, disclosed assets are mutual funds, a credit-union holding, and disclosed outside book/teaching income (Hachette Book Group, Duke). Raw wealth and policy positions are excluded from the fiduciary read by rule. The genuine fiduciary breach is to the constitutional process (the 2020-21 subversion effort), which is captured in the severity flags and M01/M04 rather than as financial self-dealing.
6. Severity-Class Conduct
Two capping severity findings. Criterion 8 (process subversion): the documented Dec 2020-Jan 2021 effort to arrange alternate/fake elector slates to overturn the certified election, the fake-electors conduct the standard names, confirmed, with material mitigation (abandonment, no amicus signature, certification vote) noted but not erasing the finding. Criterion 10 (sustained enemy-making/incitement): the June 2025 posts mocking a colleague's assassination and casting opponents as murderous 'Marxists,' characterized as part of a pattern, confirmed. Either flag alone forecloses author_verdict.support. Flag count: two.
7. What The Framework Says
Mike Lee's record carries genuine strengths the standard does not hide: real constitutional substance, no office-driven self-enrichment, productive solo legislating on surveillance and public lands, and, at the decisive moment, a refusal to take the last step, abandoning the alternate-elector scheme and voting to certify when colleagues would not. But two documented capping patterns govern the verdict. The two-month effort to construct fake-elector slates to overturn a certified election is process subversion (Criterion 8), and the mockery of a murdered colleague while branding opponents murderous 'Marxists' is sustained enemy-making (Criterion 10). Both bear on the oath at its core. The mitigations are weighed honestly and keep the conduct measures off the absolute floor, but capping conduct forecloses support regardless of the composite. Failing band; support withheld.
8. Sources & Where To Look Deeper
Tier 1 (primary): Congress.gov member profile · Senate financial disclosures (eFD)
Tier 2: Lugar Center / McCourt Bipartisan Index · Washington Post, Meadows text reporting · NBC News, Minnesota-shooting posts
Research links: Congress.gov member profile · Ballotpedia · Senate financial disclosures (eFD) · GovTrack · Wikipedia
Scores derive from the fixed Constitutional Weight Schedule. The bar does not move. Conduct, not party.