Guest Essay published in The New York Times Nov. 29, 2023

Donald Trump and the Jefferson Davis Problem

By Mark Graber

"State courts in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and elsewhere have so far declined to rule in favor of challenges asserting that Donald Trump should be disqualified from holding the presidency again under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. (Cases in Michigan and Colorado have been appealed.)

Challengers assert that Mr. Trump is barred because, as stated in Section 3, he was an officer of the United States who, after taking an oath to support the Constitution, “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the country or gave “aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” before and during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Mr. Trump and his campaign have called this claim an absurd conspiracy theory and labeled efforts to bar him as election interference. Some election officials and legal scholars — many of them otherwise opposed to the former president — have also been critical of the efforts..."

Mark Graber is the University System of Maryland Regents Professor at Maryland Carey Law.