The 14th Amendment to the Constitution bans anyone who āengaged in insurrection or rebellion againstā 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. Caplanās Thursday lawsuit claims that the ex-presidentās involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot would make him ineligible to run again, thanks to the Constitutionās 14th Amendmentāa Civil War-era addition aimed at preventing those who āengaged in insurrection or rebellion againstā the U.S. from holding office. āNow 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,ā the lawsuit says, also citing Trumpās alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Legal experts say itās an uphill battle to argue in court, since the amendment has hardly been exercised in modern history. āRealistically, itās not a Hail Mary, but itās just tossing the ball up and hoping it lands in the right place,ā 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
Iām not a lawyer (yet) as I havenāt taken the bar exam, but I remember learning this in law school.
I canāt find the original court filing that all these news articles are reporting, but presumably, this is a special kind of suit seeking a ādeclaratory judgmentā - a suit asking the court to prevent a harm before it happens.
Cornell Law School discusses it in a somewhat lengthy read but put āsimplyā, for standing in this kind of case, the court would want to see:
a concrete controversy (as opposed to a hypothetical one, e.g. you canāt seek a declaratory judgment āin case my neighbor decides to hit meā),
between adverse parties (some random citizen canāt sue you for breaking a promise you made to your grandma),
that is ripe (where enough has already happened that a decision right now wouldnāt require much speculation),
not moot (has to be able to affect the current case, for example, declaratory judgment isnāt appropriate to determine āshould he have done that?ā), and
the courtās decision is needed to prevent imminent harm (has to be relatively certain that a party would be adversely affected if the court doesnāt prevent it from happening).
Here there could be issues of ripeness: the court might not want to act on the mere possibility that Trump will be found guilty of insurrection etc. Courts donāt like to tell people what they can and canāt do unless a real situation makes it necessary, otherwise the court would risk encroaching on powers that belong to the other branches of government.
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Thank you for bringing rigour and structure to the discussion as opposed to sheer speculation. Take my upvote pretty please.