Samuel Case, FISM News
A group of Democrats are investigating whether former President Donald Trump can be barred from holding office again by invoking a section of the 14th Amendment.
Specifically, the Democrats are looking to skewer Trump’s political future on the grounds of Section 3 of the amendment which prevents those who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding office again. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment reads in full:
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.
The Hill reports that the move has been considered by “a handful of Democrats, constitutional scholars and pro-democracy advocates,” since the events of January 6th last year. According to the Hill roughly a dozen Democratic lawmakers have been seeking to apply section 3 to political figures they believe were involved in the Capitol Hill riot.
Democrats weighing this option include Representatives Jamie Raskin (MD), a member of the House select committee investigating the riot, Jerry Nadler (NY), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL).
Samuel Goldman, associate professor of political science at George Washington University, described the effort as a “constitutional pipe dream,” considering that Trump had already been acquitted by the Senate of similar charges during his second impeachment trial.
“A 14th Amendment gambit would almost certainly fail. In the first place, it’s constitutionally dubious. Articles I and II make it clear that the impeachment process is Congress’ main tool for holding presidents accountable for conduct inconsistent with their office,” Goldman wrote in The Week.
He further noted that the move would not be supported by the public and that even if the Democrats somehow pulled it off, “the bar could be lifted by a future Congress.”