Trump Could Be Banned From 2024 Ballot in 6 Southern States Due to Post-Civil War Law - Report

© REUTERS / CARLOS BARRIAFormer U.S. President Donald Trump walks onto a stage as he holds a rally in Florence, Arizona, U.S., January 15, 2022.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump walks onto a stage as he holds a rally in Florence, Arizona, U.S., January 15, 2022. - Sputnik International, 1920, 17.01.2022
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An 1868 law re-admitting six former Confederate states to the Union obligated them to prevent insurgents from running for office. Now the law is being reexamined and might keep Trump off of primary and general election ballots in these states if the January 6 investigation results in the former president being convicted of inciting an insurrection.
Former President Donald Trump could face a stumbling block should he decide to try his luck again in 2024.
An old Reconstruction-era law could keep the 45th off the ballot in six Southern states, including North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, due to his alleged role in the Capitol riot, The Huffington Post reported on Sunday.
Citizens who have participated in an insurgency against the United States are barred from holding state or federal office under the 14th Amendment's third section. However, another clause in that post-Civil War amendment reportedly leads many experts to assume that the ban can only be enforced by US Congress, implying that Republicans might oppose any such move.
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Nevertheless, an Indiana University law professor with expert knowledge in the post-Civil War era, Gerard Magliocca, told the publication that the over 150-year-old law is "still on the books."

"The law is still there. And it could be appealed to," Magliocca said.

North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida, the six states affected by the 1868 statute, have a total of 88 electoral votes, or 33% of the total needed to win the presidency. With the exception of Georgia, which he lost by 12,000 votes in 2020, Trump won in all of them.
The constitutional ban on insurrectionists running for office applies everywhere, according to Ron Fein, whose Free Speech For People group is already challenging North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn's reelection bid due to his participation in the rally on the day of the riot at the Capitol.

Fein said that the group intended to file 14th amendment complaints against everyone proven to be involved in those events, and specifically against the ex-POTUS: "We fully intend to pursue this type of challenge if Mr. Trump chooses to run."

The former president was impeached by the House on accusations of inciting an insurgency. However, Democrats failed to gather enough votes to convict him, thanks to Republicans (not all of them, though) who argued that the legislative branch lacked the right to do so because Trump was no longer in office. If the impeachment had been successful, Trump could have been barred from holding federal office for the rest of his life with a simple majority vote.
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After the 1861-1865 Civil War, Congress sought to exclude those who had fought for the Confederacy or served in its government from holding public office in the reunited nation.
The 14th Amendment, in its third section, prohibits persons who have previously sworn an oath to preserve the US Constitution and then participated in an insurgency against the country from ever holding state or federal office unless Congress grants a two-thirds vote dispensation.
Before the 14th Amendment was approved, Congress issued a bill in 1868 that made the implementation of the proposed amendment's insurrectionist ban a condition of six Southern states' readmission to the Union. After the amendment was adopted, the remaining Confederate states were readmitted, and the statutes allowing them back in did not include that specific provision.
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