Recently, two state Supreme Courts (Colorado and Michigan) have split on whether Trump can appear on the Republican primary ballot based on their conclusions about whether he has run afoul of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. And now, Maine’s secretary of state has declared that Trump should be barred from the Republican primary in Maine.
But these decisions to remove him from the ballot are just begging for long and drawn-out challenges on the basis of lack of due process. The problem is that the 14th Amendment does not explicitly establish a process to enforce it and there is no precedent on which to base a process.
The clearest way to impose the penalty given in the 14th Amendment (prohibition from holding any office of the United States, or of any state) is for a jury to find him guilty of insurrection, and, as part of their verdict, declare that he is thereby prohibited from holding office again.
Therefore Jack Smith should ask that the jury in the Jan. 6 trial be instructed that they can do that if they find him guilty of insurrection.
Howard Marshall
Harpswell
Send questions/comments to the editors.
