Advocates of “original intent” for interpretation of The Constitution usually omit amendment. [FN1] At this writing, Colorado’s Supreme Court and Maine’s Secretary of State have cited Amend XIV, Sec 3 (“Sec 3") to bar trump from those States’ ballots in 2024. 1/7

1) Context. “[A]fter the rebellion had been defeated, Southern States had audaciously sent to Congress [] men who had notoriously violated previously sworn oaths to support the U.S. Constitution.’” [FN2] The Confederates violated their oaths. 2/7

2) Prospective. There is no language in the amendment that limited its application to the former government and military officials of the rebellion of the Southern States. To include such a provision was possible. 3/7

3) Language. There is no requirement that a person be convicted of insurrection to be barred from office. This is not a criminal provision. “Treason” is defined, as a crime, in the Constitution. [FN3] Those who authored Sec 3 were well aware of this. 4/7

4) Double jeopardy. Neither of trump’s trials act as double jeopardy to bar his omission from the ballot: those were not criminal prosecutions. Neither claim or issue preclusion is a bar because the elements of those defenses do not apply. 5/7

Footnotes: FN1. Art. V. FN2. Including 4 Confed generals, 4 colonels, several members of the Confederate congress, state legislatures, and Confederacy vice president.” Baude and Paulsen, “The Sweep and Force of Section Three,” 172 U. PA. L. REV. 2024. 6/7

Footnotes: FN3. Art. III, sec. 3. 7/7