Donald Trump’s indictment on charges relating to his attempt to overturn the election, which led to the January 6 insurrection, represents not just a major legal hazard for the former president but also a potential political risk. The Constitution states officeholders who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States are unable to hold office. Already, anti-Trump advocates plan to use the charges tying Trump to the coup attempt to get him removed from the 2024 ballot.
The two main groups behind the effort to bar Trump’s candidacy are Free Speech for the People, a nonprofit aimed at fighting corruption and political inequality, and the watchdog organization Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Both are likely to start filing multiple challenges in dozens of states this November after states have set their primary rules. “We are focused on bringing the strongest case possible against Donald Trump,” says Donald Sherman, CREW’s senior vice-president and chief counsel. “This is not a messaging exercise. We are bringing a case to win.”
...The challenges are based on the 14th Amendment, which was adopted after the Civil War with the intention of righting some of the wrongs that led to the conflict and ensuring that it wouldn’t happen again. The amendment guarantees citizenship for formerly enslaved people, ensures due process under the law, and protects voting rights. It’s the third clause, the so-called Disqualification Clause, that bars insurrectionists from holding office. It was only used once during the 20th century, to remove socialist Victor L. Berger from Congress in 1919 for his supposed pro-German sympathies during World War I. Berger was reinstated after the Supreme Court tossed Berger’s espionage conviction.
Dormant for a century, the clause was dusted off after the Capitol riot. In the runup to the 2022 midterms, a judge in New Mexico declared that “Cowboys for Trump” founder Couy Griffin, who had been convicted of storming the Capitol, was “constitutionally disqualified” from holding the county commissioner seat he’d been elected to. The state’s Democratic governor then handed the seat to the office’s Democratic candidate, who was then defeated by another Republican who currently holds the position...more
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