this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2025
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And there is the problem with this logic. No due process was followed in the Colorado Supreme Court's decision...which is why it was invalidated. "Disqualification" in this case, was anything but "clear". Trump was never tried or convicted of seditious conspiracy...which is the closest thing to actual sedition that exists in the criminal code. And getting a conviction on that charge would be next to impossible unless he physically engaged in the crime...which he did not.
Attempting to gain a conviction based simply on the speech he gave, directing people to move on the Capitol would require prosecutors to prove his intent for violence...and that would require them to prove his thoughts and feelings in that moment. Unless they could produce the equivalent of a signed confession, they would not have been able to get that conviction.
The Colorado case didn't even try to do that. They made their argument the same way you are...by asserting your opinion that the crime should be considered "obvious", and that Trump should be found guilty without due process or any evidence to prove their claim. That is not how the law works.
This is why the case being brought by Jack Smith had far more merit, and almost certainly would have resulted in Trump's disqualification, and most likely jail time. He was bringing receipts. Emails, text messages, and internal White House memos and meeting agendas. That's what you need to convict someone of seditious conspiracy, when they didn't actively participate in the act of sedition. You have to at least prove the "conspiracy" part, beyond the vague assertion that "everyone knows he did it".
Unfortunately, Smith ran out of time, and the case was dropped. For the time being, anyway. It can always be brought again, once Trump is no longer in office, since no conclusive verdict was ever reached, the first time.
Then why does so many experts on constitutional history disagree?
Colorado didn't have jurisdiction to convict, but had jurisdiction to recognize it. The legal process over it was still ongoing then.
It would be absurd to assume you could just appeal yourself out of it, especially when the text clearly says courts can not declare you qualified again, NOT EVEN SCOTUS, 2/3 of congress has to do that - and they didn't
What "experts" disagree? The rule of law in this country doesn't work based on a declaration of guilt. In order for someone to be found guilty of a crime, you need more than a simple accusation...you need a conviction.
Colorado didn't provide that. None of the States that tried to remove Trump from the ballot, did. The bare minimum would have been for Congress to convict him ceremonially, through impeachment. But, they failed to do that because Democrats didn't have the votes.
That left only one option...bring charges against him in court, and have a jury decide whether or not his actions met the criteria.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/conservative-scholars-trump-disqualified
https://www.citizensforethics.org/news/analysis/legal-experts-across-the-ideological-spectrum-agree-the-14th-amendment-disqualifies-trump-from-holding-office/
The standard under the constitution is what the standard under the constitution is, not that of current civil prosecution under federal and state law.
Precedence for nullifying the entirety of an invalid appointment and its consequences exist, and were applied when courts unrolled the illegal hostile takeover of USIP
The constitution explicitly were written to only require acts of congress to pardon, but not an act of congress to decide someone was guilty. It's not even close, that means courts gets to decide. SCOTUS lied.
Again...that is not HOW the law is applied in the United States. Unless you're saying that due process doesn't apply to this particular charge, then there needs to be some determining mechanism to say he did in fact commit that crime.
This is the entire foundation of the US justice system. You cannot simply declare someone guilty of something, and make it so. The 14th amendment would have to contradict everything else in the Constitution in order to be applied that way.
You're missing the absolutely massive difference of the purpose of constitutional law VS federal or state law.
In a simplified form, the former is to constrain government actors to protect the people, the latter is to constrain individuals to protect them against each other.
There is no such thing as a right to be a president, but the constitution recognize the right to not be represented by seditionists. The constitution doesn't punish the candidate here in 14A3 - it simply constrains them from enacting the power of the government.
Criminal and civil punishment would be applied separately, where the candidate is directly afforded rights. But enacting constitutional restrictions is not limited by the results of civil and criminal procedures. Why else is congress allowed to impeach which just a vote?
Due process looks very different for the same reason - the process is designed to protect the public over the candidate, and the candidate's strongest claim is protecting representation, not protecting themselves.
Ummm...no. Constitutional law is the foundation for both Federal and State law. There is no "this VS that". They are all based on the legal framework outlined in the Constitution.
Due process is simply the process of due diligence that is required to ensure that the law is applied in a fair and equitable manner. It is based on the concept that you must provide evidence of someone's guilt in order to punish them for what they are accused of.
This applies just as much to the 14th amendment as it does to any other law on the books. The only difference is, the 14th amendment applied to people who never individually made it to the trial process before they were universally pardoned. But proof of their actions was still required for the 14th to be applied. What made it so much easier in that case, was the fact that it was relatively easy to find records that proved they served in the Confederate army. It was all basically a matter of public record, so anyone who looked into it, could find out.
If there was no "burden of proof" applied to the 14th, then those Democrats who recently posted a video reminding US soldiers that they have an obligation to refuse unlawful orders would all be disqualified from holding their positions. Why? Because Trump accused them of encouraginging sedition. If all it took was an accusation...then they'd already be considered guilty. Is that how you imagine the law should work?