# Why 14th Amendment Bars Trump From Office: A Constitutional Law Scholar Explains Principle Behind Colorado Supreme Court Ruling  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Mark A. Graber]] - Full Title:: Why 14th Amendment Bars Trump From Office: A Constitutional Law Scholar Explains Principle Behind Colorado Supreme Court Ruling - Category: #articles - URL: https://theconversation.com/why-14th-amendment-bars-trump-from-office-a-constitutional-law-scholar-explains-principle-behind-colorado-supreme-court-ruling-219763 ## Highlights > Section 3 of that amendment wrote into the Constitution the principle President Abraham Lincoln set out just three months after the first shots were fired in the Civil War. On July 4, 1861, he spoke to Congress, declaring that “[when ballots have fairly, and constitutionally, decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets](https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/july-4-1861-july-4th-message-congress).” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmass5rbkkaqb54a22zzh2)) > The text of [Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states](https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-14/), in full: > > “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.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmb107wv3z20f4ec6x9cce)) > In a democracy, people cannot substitute force, violence or intimidation for persuasion, coalition building and voting. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmbwsx0872sxh630eaf976)) ##### The power of the ballot > The Republicans who wrote the amendment repeatedly declared that Section 3 [covered all offices established by the Constitution](https://balkin.blogspot.com/2023/11/presidents-as-officers-of-and-under.html) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmd0q9qc9fnx3a5qf3ywbs)) > Senators, representatives and presidential electors are spelled out because [some doubt existed when the amendment was debated in 1866](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4591133) as to whether they were officers of the United States, although they were frequently referred to as such in the course of congressional debates. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmddctn0t7q7skxeyprv18)) > No one can hold any of the offices enumerated in Section 3 without the power of the ballot ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmme5x84d2c2abrv4x9z2ym)) > No office mentioned in the first clause of Section 3 may be achieved by force, violence or intimidation. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmewbyevy9y013sa86v36h)) ##### A required oath ##### Defining disqualification > Section 3 then says people can be disqualified from holding office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” Legal authorities from the American Revolution to the post-Civil War Reconstruction understood an insurrection to have occurred when two or more people [resisted a federal law by force or violence](https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4591133) for a public, or civic, purpose ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmjjzect93bme0wge3t8fp)) > Shay’s Rebellion, the Whiskey Insurrection, Burr’s Rebellion, John Brown’s Raid and other events [were insurrections](https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4591133), even when the goal was not overturning the government ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmkkkzz03zyh3wksdtnrrr)) > What these events had in common was that people were trying to prevent the enforcement of laws that were consequences of persuasion, coalition building and voting ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmmctwmfh57xeddqnqza6w)) > Or they were trying to create new laws by force, violence and intimidation. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmmfv7qk9mgb4qcdczyn0q)) > These words in the amendment declare that those who turn to bullets when ballots fail to provide their desired result cannot be trusted as democratic officials ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmpbeb5nsezwm1y59z6km9)) > When applied specifically to the events on Jan. 6, 2021, the amendment declares that those who turn to violence when voting goes against them cannot hold office in a democratic nation. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmpev74fnyxgbeej5vas3g)) ##### A chance at clemency > The last sentence of Section 3 announces that forgiveness is possible. It says “Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability” – the ineligibility of individuals or categories of people to hold office because of having participated in an insurrection or rebellion ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmq72rpxyejbk9rvy4pnk4)) > This provision of the amendment says that bullets may substitute for ballots and violence for voting only in very unusual circumstances ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmrmxjmjvgeq6bqm4e67z3)) ##### A clear conclusion > Taken as a whole, the structure of Section 3 leads to the conclusion that Donald Trump is one of those past or present government officials who by violating his oath of allegiance to the constitutional rules has forfeited his right to present and future office. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmsa3y628gqbmfw580n80p)) > Exhaustive research by Trump supporters has yet to produce a single assertion to the contrary that was made in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmty580tgzs724e44qdz5w)) > Most Republican senators who voted against his conviction did so on the grounds that they [did not have the power to convict](https://rollcall.com/2021/02/13/trump-acquitted/) a president who was no longer in office ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmvkwnq6k40n175rjztnrt)) > Most of them did not dispute that [Trump participated in an insurrection](https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/536408-how-mcconnell-derailed-trumps-impeachment-trial-before-it-started/) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmvwzqjh4bsae65vv0s3w3)) > Constitutional democracy is rule by law. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkmmw46s5c1b1w9ag9v2pxj4))