Only Voters Can Truly Disqualify Trump

Ah, good old NYT. "Trump caught on film eating babies. How is this bad for Joe Biden?"

Of course the courts can disqualify him! The man already tried to overthrow the government once. The whole purpose of the insurrection clause is—you guessed it!—to stop insurrectionists from being able to hold office any longer. This would be his second time!

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Intense debate has accompanied the decision by the Supreme Court to review the decision by Colorado’s highest court to bar Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballots based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — about the precise meaning of the word “insurrection,” the extent of Mr. Trump’s culpability for the events of Jan. 6 and other legal issues.

Rebel officers might well have retained strong popular support in the former Confederate states, but Section 3 prevented the rebellion from being continued by electoral means.

I count myself among those who consider Mr. Trump to be manifestly unfit to serve in any office ever again because of his actions on that day, even if he is not held criminally liable.

It’s notable in that regard, then, that impeachment — the remedy the Constitution provides for a president who violates his oath of office — does not involve the courts but the people, acting through their representatives.

Some Republican senators, including the minority leader, Mitch McConnell, effectively asked the courts to do just that during the impeachment debate.

Noah Millman (@BloggerGideon) writes the newsletter Gideon’s Substack and is the film and theater critic at Modern Age.

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