AlternetTwo leading, highly-credentialed conservative constitutional law professors say the U.S. Constitution already “disqualifies former President Donald Trump” from holding office, including being President, because of his “participation in the attempted overthrow of the 2020 presidential election.”
In a 126-page University of Pennsylvania Law Review paper published Wednesday, University of Chicago Law School Professor William Baude, and University of St. Thomas School of Law Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen, introduce their work by writing:
“Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids holding office by former office holders who then participate in insurrection or rebellion. Because of a range of misperceptions and mistaken assumptions, Section Three’s full legal consequences have not been appreciated or enforced. This article corrects those mistakes by setting forth the full sweep and force of Section Three.”
Appearing to push back against claims made previously by others in defense of a second Trump presidential term, they write: “Section Three remains an enforceable part of the Constitution, not limited to the Civil War, and not effectively repealed by nineteenth century amnesty legislation.”
They say Congress need do nothing to implement Trump’s “immediate disqualification from office.”
“Section Three is self-executing, operating as an immediate disqualification from office, without the need for additional action by Congress. It can and should be enforced by every official, state or federal, who judges qualifications.”
The law professors add, “to the extent of any conflict with prior constitutional rules, Section Three repeals, supersedes, or simply satisfies them. This includes the rules against bills of attainder or ex post facto laws, the Due Process Clause, and even the free speech principles of the First Amendment. Fourth, Section Three covers a broad range of conduct against the authority of the constitutional order, including many instances of indirect participation or support as ‘aid or comfort.’ It covers a broad range of former offices, including the Presidency.”
“And in particular, it disqualifies former President Donald Trump, and potentially many others, because of their participation in the attempted overthrow of the 2020 presidential election.”
The New York Times notes that both professors “are active members of the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group, and proponents of originalism, the method of interpretation that seeks to determine the Constitution’s original meaning.”
“Steven G. Calabresi, a law professor at Northwestern and Yale and a founder of the Federalist Society,” The Times adds, “called the article ‘a tour de force.'”
“Trump is ineligible to be on the ballot,” Professor Calabresi told The Times, “and each of the 50 state secretaries of state has an obligation to print ballots without his name on them.” Calabresi also “said…that they may be sued for refusing to do so.”
Former U.S. Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, a “star witness” during a televised hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, also praised the article. He says it “promises to be of monumental — and historic, if not also contemporary — importance to Constitutional Law.”
Noah Bookbinder, the President of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) notes the two conservative law professors cite CREW’s work in their article. He calls it, “Extremely significant that two leading conservative legal scholars put out a piece today arguing that section 3 of the 14th Amendment remains enforceable and disqualifies Donald Trump from office.”
Read the professors’ full article here.
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