By Edwin Cooney
Without doubt, the 2024 presidential election will be decided in the courts just as much as it will be concluded in local voting booths! In addition to the legal and primary challenges that the 45th President faces in his bid for a second term, some insist that Mr. Trump isn't eligible to be re-elected under the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution
The 14th Amendment which was ratified on Thursday, July 9th, 1868, a presidential election year, contained Section Three determining the eligibility of those who would seek public office in the wake of the insurrection during the late Civil War. It reads as follows:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or 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. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Supporters of the former president insist that Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment applies solely to post Civil War conditions and circumstances and can’t apply to January 6th, 2021 unless and until those who participated in that event have been duly convicted of insurrection. Reluctantly, I must concur with that sentiment.
Friends of Free Speech for the People, a liberal anti-Trump organization, says that the former president does not have to be found guilty of insurrection by any court to be barred from eligibility for re-election because Section Three specifically empowers a two-thirds vote by each House of Congress to disallow any person's eligibility under that section of the Fourteenth Amendment. Note that a county commissioner in New Mexico was recently removed from office for his participation in the January 6th, 2021 attack on Congress. As I understand it, that occurred only because that commissioner was convicted of insurrection due to his participation in the January 6th, 2021 riot against Congress.
Men and women of both knowledge and brilliance will of course debate this matter long after the election of 2024 is history. However, I'm not convinced that without clear and defined constitutional authority, Mr. Trump ought to be deprived of his constitutional right for re-election.
To me, Donald John Trump lacks the capacity to be either a Republican or a conservative. His disregard for everything and everyone separate from his personal whims makes him ineligible as a respectable political entity. As for the seven or eight other Republican candidates, they're only dangerous to the extent that they endorse Mr. Trump's disregard for others. Donald Trump is a thoroughly self-centered and self-aggrandizing person who recognizes no one else's prerogatives other than his own! That is why it is so hard for this observer to understand how some friends for whom I have much respect and affection can even consider voting for him.
Yes, as of this hour, Donald Trump can legitimately be re-elected President of the United States of America in 2024. However, that doesn't in the least mean that he ought to be!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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