December 28, 2023
Troy D. Smith
“Disqualified? Trump and Section 3 of the 14th
Amendment”
First, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas (or other
holiday) and wish all a happy new year.
That said…. Boy, is this year ending with a political
bang. As you probably already know, the Colorado Supreme Court has upheld a
lower ruling that Donald Trump engaged in insurrection, and further ruled that
-pursuant to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment -he is barred from
appearing on the presidential ballot in Colorado. The U. S. Supreme Court,
which last week declined to expedite the decision about whether Trump is immune
from prosecution because he was president, may agree to hear this case almost
immediately. There is a lot riding on that SCOTUS decision. If they overturn
the Colorado decision, everything will proceed as normal (if you can call what
we do nowadays normal); if they sustain that Colorado decision, Trump may well
be barred from appearing on ANY state’s ballots.
This has divided people along more than just political
lines. Some people argue in favor of the Colorado decision, claiming it is an
accurate reading of the Constitution and that the rule of law must be followed
(“Let justice prevail, though the heavens fall”, as the Romans used to say).
Others -and I’ve heard this from both ends of the political spectrum -say that
voters alone should get to choose who to vote for as president. An opinion poll
from Dec. 21 shows that 54% of Americans think Colorado made the right
decision, while 35% disapproved of that decision (with 12% undecided). Not
surprisingly, 84% of Democrats polled supported the decision. What I found
surprising was that 48% of Independents supported Colorado, while only 35%
disapproved -and that 24% of Republicans supported it with 66% disapproving.
Why is that surprising to me? Significantly more Independents polled believe
Trump should be disqualified to run for president than whose who disagreed. And
while 24% is a small number, it means that one-quarter of Republicans think Trump
should be disqualified -that is a minority, but a significant one. Not
surprising: support for the decision is lowest in the South. Surprising: even
so, in the South it is 48% in favor vs. 38% opposed.
Of course, opinions are like a certain body part:
everyone has one, and everyone’s stinks except your own. So what are the facts?
Let’s take a look at that 14th amendment, one of the three
“Reconstruction amendments.” Here is Section 3, in its entirety:
“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 original district court ruling said that this did
not apply because it does not specifically mention running for president.
Colorado’s Supreme Court overturned that ruling as erroneous, pointing out that
the president is named as an office 28 times in the Constitution and that, as
the wording was being argued in the 1860s, the question came up and one of the
authors said that “any office, civil or military”, obviously included the
office of president.
Not having participated in or supported an insurrection
is a qualification to run, just like the fact a candidate must have been born a
citizen, must be at least 35, and cannot serve more than two terms.
The only question, then, is: did Trump participate in
or support an insurrection? I’ll address that next week -on the anniversary of
the insurrection.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee
Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE
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