Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
— 14th Amendment, Section 3
When the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Donald J. Trump’s insurrectionist activities made him ineligible to seek office again, the decision was pretty clear cut, as legal scholar Elie Mystal wrote for The Nation:
Donald Trump engaged in insurrection. That’s not me saying it, or Jack Smith saying it; that’s what the first court to hear this case, the Colorado state court, ruled at trial a few weeks ago. The trial court found that Trump engaged in insurrection, but twisted itself into an illogical knot to say that Section 3 didn’t apply to Trump because he was the president of the United States and not an “officer” of the United States.
That was silly. Most of what the Colorado State Supreme Court did in its 215-page opinion unraveled that logical inconsistency and applied a more accurate interpretation of Section 3 and Colorado state law to the facts (that Trump is an insurrectionist) that were found by the trial court. If the 14th Amendment means what it says, this isn’t a controversial opinion, legally speaking. Insurrectionists cannot hold office again.
On Thursday, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows removed Trump’s name from the 2024…
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