Source: Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former president Donald Trump could be disqualified from running again in 2024 according to a new paper published by two conservative law professors.
William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen argue that the 14th Amendment contains a clause that any former elected official who engages in insurrection or rebellion is prohibited from holding office in the future, unless he receives permission from two-thirds of both the Senate and House of Representatives.
Trump is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, with polling giving him a strong lead over his closest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. However, the former president is facing a range of criminal charges, including charges over claims that he broke the law while trying to remain in office despite losing the 2020 election, which he strongly denies. Trump insists the 2020 vote was rigged against him, despite his claims of electoral fraud being dismissed in multiple courts and by independent legal experts.
Baude and Paulsen state the 14th Amendment “remains fully legally operative” and is “constitutionally self-executing” meaning “its command is automatically effective, directly enacted by the Constitution itself.”
The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, just three years after the end of the Civil War.
