Trump’s 2024 Eligibility Ignites Debate—and Litigation
Since the day Donald Trump supporters rampaged through the Capitol in 2021, legal scholars have pondered whether a post-Civil War clause in the Constitution that disqualifies insurrectionists from public office can prevent him from ever reclaiming the presidency. As polls show Trump surging toward another Republican presidential nomination, the question of his eligibility under the 14th Amendment is no longer merely academic. A left-leaning legal watchdog on Wednesday filed suit in Denver demanding that Trump be excluded from Colorado’s primary ballot, the first of an expected barrage of challenges, petitions and lawsuits seeking to disqualify the former president across the electoral map.
And in recent days, state officials responsible for running elections in Michigan and New Hampshire say they are examining the 14th Amendment’s potential as a barrier to Trump. Under the spotlight is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies from public office those who swore to defend the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the U.S. or aided its enemies.
Lawmakers drafted the section during Reconstruction to prevent Confederates who rose up in arms against the Union from seizing back power through the ballot box. Until Jan. 6, 2021, Section 3 was regarded as a Civil War remnant, largely forgotten and seldom litigated.
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