The top court in the US state of Colorado ordered former US President Donald Trump to be taken off the ballot in the state for the Presidential elections next year. On Tuesday (December 19), the Supreme Court in Colorado ruled that Trump stands “disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution”.
The judgment was related to Trump’s alleged role in the January 6, 2021 attacks on the US Capitol – the seat of the country’s government. Trump supporters were protesting the election victory of Democratic candidate Joe Biden in 2020, claiming the polls were rigged. They rioted and entered the premises of government offices in Washington DC. At least five people died in the aftermath and some were injured.
Trump has said he will contest the ruling and the case is then likely to go to the US Supreme Court. But what is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, under which Trump has been disqualified?
What is the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution?
According to the US government archives, the Amendment was passed and ratified by the US Congress between 1866 and 1868. It was brought in after the Civil War ended (1861-65) and “extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people”.
Section 3 of the amendment says:
“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.”
Simply, it says that if any person previously elected to any government office took part in an insurrection or rebellion, they cannot hold office again.
The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were introduced after the Civil War ended. The war was fought between the Northern and Southern states over the issue of slavery. The History Channel states that as American states sought to expand westward, a growing divide between the two sides came to the fore. The North wanted slavery to be abolished, while the South wanted to retain it. The Southern states’ economies were also comparatively more dependent on agriculture, where most of the workers were African-American slaves.
Following the election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the support that he enjoyed from the Northern states, it took only a few months for seven southern states — South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas — to secede from the United States. The war then began between the Unionists (The North) and the Confederacy (The South).
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The war ended with the victory of the Unionists and the led to subsequent abolishment of slavery. The three amendments were gradually brought in to accord rights to the former slaves. Under the 14th Amendment, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States” were granted citizenship, including the formerly enslaved people.
In an article in The Conversation, Mark A Graber, a law professor from the University of Maryland, writes: “To me as a scholar of constitutional law, each sentence and sentence fragment captures the commitment made by the nation in the wake of the Civil War to govern by constitutional politics. People seeking political and constitutional changes must play by the rules set out in the Constitution. In a democracy, people cannot substitute force, violence or intimidation for persuasion, coalition building and voting.”
Therefore, the idea that an elected official would have rebelled against the constitution itself would be seen as a threat to that system of constitutional politics. The clause would also further the principles of sovereignty and unity, damaged by the war. Graber further writes that an insurrection has been interpreted as “when two or more people resisted a federal law by force or violence for a public, or civic, purpose.” It does not necessarily mean an overthrow of the government, but rather an expression of disobedience of existing laws and structures.
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Finally, how could it impact Trump’s candidacy for 2024?
According to Reuters, Section 3 has “rarely been tested” in court. This marks the first time that it has been mentioned in relation to a former President.
The Supreme Court has a majority of conservative judges. In the US, Presidents appoint judges for a lifetime tenure and the appointments are largely based on party lines. The Reuters report added that even if the court agrees with the Colorado judgment, it would simply mean Trump cannot be voted for in that state in 2024. Traditionally, Colorado has seen the Democratic party’s candidate win the state’s electors, so the new ruling is not seen as particularly harmful to Trump’s electoral prospects.
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Explained: The rarely invoked 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, used to disqualify Trump from holding office - The Indian Express
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