The 14th Amendment to the Constitution bans anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the U.S. from holding office.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution bans anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the U.S. from holding office.

A Florida lawyer is suing Donald Trump in an attempt to disqualify his current run for president. Lawrence A. Caplan’s Thursday lawsuit claims that the ex-president’s involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot would make him ineligible to run again, thanks to the Constitution’s 14th Amendment—a Civil War-era addition aimed at preventing those who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the U.S. from holding office. “Now given that the facts seem to be crystal clear that Trump was involved to some extent in the insurrection that took place on January 6th, the sole remaining question is whether American jurists who swear an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution upon their entry to the bench, will choose to follow the letter of the Constitution in this case,” the lawsuit says, also citing Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Legal experts say it’s an uphill battle to argue in court, since the amendment has hardly been exercised in modern history. “Realistically, it’s not a Hail Mary, but it’s just tossing the ball up and hoping it lands in the right place,” Charles Zelden, a professor of history and legal studies at Nova Southeastern University, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

archive link to South Florida Sun Sentinel article: https://archive.ph/1BntD

    • @halcyoncmdrEnglish
      11•1 year ago

      ETA: I am still shocked you can be a felon and still run for and be president. That is something new I learned.

      Many of our laws are based on people being at bare minimum reasonable. Election laws especially are written so that the electorate can decide.

      Should a federal conviction for having marijuana plants prevent someone from running for office? Or should the citizens be able to make that decision when voting?

      The problem is that because many of our laws lack specificity some modern assholes are attempting to use those loopholes and trying to politicize absolutely everything. Combined with the fact that many people no longer have the time to properly research things on their own (assuming they even have proper critical thinking education now), a decent segment of the population no longer is getting unbiased or minimally biased factual information from “news” sources due to the repeal of laws requiring that over the decades.

    • Telorand
      5•1 year ago

      Yep. Basically the 14th is the quickest path to disallowing his run. But he can get multiple life sentences for murdering a million people and still run.