Constitution Bars Trump From Office, Conservative UST Law Prof Argues

ST. PAUL, MN — Former President Donald Trump cannot run for or become president again under the U.S. Constitution, argues a conservative law professor from the University of St. Thomas.

Michael Stokes Paulsen and his co-author — William Baude of the University of Chicago — wrote an article for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review that says Trump is barred from office because he participated in an insurrection.

"Donald Trump cannot be president — cannot run for president, cannot become president, cannot hold office — unless two-thirds of Congress decides to grant him amnesty for his conduct on Jan. 6," Paulsen told the New York Times.

The provision they cite is in Section Three, Article 14 of the Constitution. The language, which was adopted after the Civil War, states the following:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Paulsen and Baude are both members of the Federalist Society, a powerful conservative legal group.

Read the full argument here.