A 14th Amendment (Section 3) Prediction

And Remedy

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution bars anyone who has formerly taken an oath to support the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection, or gave aid and comfort to anyone who did from ever holding public office in the future.

This seems plainly to apply to Donald Trump, who incited the insurrection which led to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and then gave aid and comfort to those who engaged in the attack (actually, he continues to do this last part today).

But there is a provision in that Amendment to allow Congress to remove that disqualification by a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers.

This last provision gives the Supreme Court (which will ultimately have to decide if his disqualification is Constitutional) the ability to declare him disqualified, but require that he nonetheless remain on the ballot in all fifty states.

The argument is that should he win, Congress would then be able to vote on whether or not to accept the will of the People and remove the disqualification or not.

This is dangerous ground, as such a vote against Trump would surely engender greater violence than simply refusing to allow him to run. And it would open the door to the question of whether or not the will of the People is valid in such a case. This isn’t open and shut. The Constitution is the will of the People in a larger percentage than any popular vote could be, as Amendments require super majorities in both chambers of Congress, as well as the legislatures of three-fourths of the states. The Constitution and its Amendments themselves are checks against temporary public support for populist ideas or candidates. After the 18th Amendment was ratified alcohol sales were illegal, regardless of how unpopular the ruling was, and remained so until we scrubbed it with the ratification of the 21st.

This is how the Supreme Court could get around the question of ballot access without facing Impeachment themselves.

The remedy to this is not waiting for the election to decide this issue, but instead to hold the votes as soon as SCOTUS makes this ruling. Thus (assuming he fails to get the necessary votes to remove the disqualification) he can be removed from the ballot in the public’s interest. There being no good cause to give the People an option to vote for someone who is disqualified from serving.