The 14th Amendment to the Constitution bans anyone who āengaged in insurrection or rebellion againstā the U.S. from holding office.
A Florida lawyer is suing Donald Trump in an attempt to disqualify his current run for president. Lawrence A. Caplanās Thursday lawsuit claims that the ex-presidentās involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot would make him ineligible to run again, thanks to the Constitutionās 14th Amendmentāa Civil War-era addition aimed at preventing those who āengaged in insurrection or rebellion againstā the U.S. from holding office. āNow given that the facts seem to be crystal clear that Trump was involved to some extent in the insurrection that took place on January 6th, the sole remaining question is whether American jurists who swear an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution upon their entry to the bench, will choose to follow the letter of the Constitution in this case,ā the lawsuit says, also citing Trumpās alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Legal experts say itās an uphill battle to argue in court, since the amendment has hardly been exercised in modern history. āRealistically, itās not a Hail Mary, but itās just tossing the ball up and hoping it lands in the right place,ā Charles Zelden, a professor of history and legal studies at Nova Southeastern University, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
archive link to South Florida Sun Sentinel article: https://archive.ph/1BntD
Is it? Are you sure?
Itās explained in great detail in the federalist papers.
āLittle more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equippedā
The thing that isnāt clear to everyone all at once is which people are getting away with heinous things with zero consequences. What is clear is that a certain level of society has no consequences. Eventually one side or the other will get fed up and things will get really bad. Whether theyāre going after the actual problems is another thing entirely, and the odds are probably better that theyāll be going after the wrong people.
Either way, I see the lack of consequences as the ultimate fuse in this powder keg. One of the main functions of government is to systematize and standardize consequences for unacceptable behavior, and we all agree to abide by rules we donāt necessarily agree to so that at least itās somewhat consistently applied. In theory. But if government refuses to even give the appearance of doing that, people will take it into their own hands. Human nature has been the way it is way longer than our oldest institutions.