The 14th Amendment to the Constitution bans anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” 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. Caplan’s Thursday lawsuit claims that the ex-president’s involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot would make him ineligible to run again, thanks to the Constitution’s 14th Amendment—a Civil War-era addition aimed at preventing those who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the U.S. from holding office. “Now 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,” the lawsuit says, also citing Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Legal experts say it’s an uphill battle to argue in court, since the amendment has hardly been exercised in modern history. “Realistically, it’s not a Hail Mary, but it’s just tossing the ball up and hoping it lands in the right place,” 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

  • sheilzy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    For real. I’m really jealous that the courts in Brazil have already banned Bolsanaro from running for office for the next 10 years and Pakistan’s parliament ousted Khan for being ungenerous to the Ukraine conflict and then later the police arrested him for bribery. Those are supposedly developing countries but they are doing a better job of controlling their tyrannical despots than we are. Fortunately, like I keep saying, Trump has too much work cut out for him to effectively campaign with so many charges. He’s been in the lead, but I don’t know if he can stay that way.

    • Skates@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      Those are supposedly developing countries but they are doing a better job of controlling their tyrannical despots than we are.

      That’s… Really interesting tbh.

      You’re equating being a developed nation with the best thing ever, and expecting that if you’re the most developed nation you are also the best at treating social issues, and are therefore a bit confused when you see how other less developed countries can treat these issues better.

      But when we get right down to it, development has no real reason to also mean “just” or “lawful”, right? I mean - “developed” means having a good economy, right? And when googling about it, the Human Development Index(HDI) comes up as well. But if we break it down, having money doesn’t mean you’re a better person. We can all think of countries with money but with a bad track record in human rights, like Saudi Arabia. And regarding the HDI, the US is 20th in that, right between South Korea (who are constantly faced with a nuclear threat along the border) and Israel (who are currently involved in stealing another countries’ land and constantly persecuting that country’s people). So what does developed mean in this context? Because it sure doesn’t mean these countries should be able to sleep at night because they have no problems.

      But skipping all that, what’s weird to me is that this mentality of “we’ve got a lot of money therefore we have a great country and society and we only make good decisions” is so ingrained in you, that it actually surprises you when your country is surpassed by other countries in some aspects.

      And it’s nothing to do with you, sorry if I made it seem like I’m attacking you or something, because I’m really not. For lack of a better way to describe this, to someone from the outside it looks like you’re a victim of a cult who is slowly starting to recognize that not everything the cult leader has been saying is actually true. I guess what I’m saying is - the American/capitalist propaganda machine does such a good job of pushing the “best country in the world” narrative, that it’s really interesting to see the ramifications it has on people’s way of thinking about the US.