Trump Risks Ban From Elected Office With Insurrection Evidence

A special House committee’s vote to refer former President Donald Trump for potential criminal charges in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol brings fresh attention to a Constitutional ban on insurrectionists holding office.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states that no one can “hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State” if they took an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”

Ratified in 1868, the language was drafted to address former Confederate officeholders. But the text doesn’t spell out exactly ...