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In his column of Aug. 5 in the BDN, Michael Cianchette was right that Congress can regulate the parts of the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction and behavior. I think he was wrong to assert that “the Constitution provides only two ways to ban someone from office,” those being a conviction in court or in a Senate impeachment trial. Before the Civil War he might have been correct. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution added a third: Section 3.
“No person shall … 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.”
The 14th Amendment does not require a conviction. It simply says that if the facts show that a person engaged in or aided an insurrection, he may not hold public office. I believe Donald Trump, not only engaged in one, but inspired one and called on his followers to go to the Capitol building to help prevent the next president from being sworn in. To suggest that any former president and commander in chief is not an officer of the United States and thus covered by the 14th would ignore the intent and purpose of the amendment.
John Fitzgerald
Sedgwick