The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that President Trump is disqualified from serving as U.S. president and cannot appear on the primary ballot in Colorado because of his role in Jan. 6, 2021.
I differ.
I don’t believe that Section 3 of 14th Amendment is self-executive and therefore can not be applied directly by the court.
All terms in the Constitution protecting the rights of the people can be self-executive, because we the people have the unalienated rights; but all terms depriving rights from the people (including officers) can not be self-executive, because the depriving needs due process and must satisfy a kind of scrutiny to balance-check the state’s compelling interests. My personal choice is not only traditional strict scrutiny, but another step higher, the “strictest” one. Because even Amendments like the 13th and 14th were added for reconstruction of the nation after the Civil War, there was no further application in history of this Section, which was purposely aiming at the punishment of the officers of the Southern Confederate states. That’s the reason that our nation reunited again quickly and became the strongest in the world.
Why are two parties today fighting so fiercely against each other that they must revive a sleeping term in decay to intensify the hostility of the people and split our society? Democrats can not satisfy this scrutiny under due process.
My understanding is that the Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is not self-executive. Congress needs to pass an “act” to enforce it with clear definition of the crimes, the trial, defending, conviction and appeal procedures; how to execute the act and by whom, and establish any limitation, any possible pardon. There should not be any space for ambiguity. Therefore, the Colorado Supreme Court cannot apply Section 3 to disqualify Mr. Trump from not appearing on the next primary ballot.
See what Section 5 says:
“The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”
Democrats, please urge your lazy representatives to draft a bill tonight.
James Potter
California
