Retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig believes former President Donald Trump may be barred from the 2024 ballot for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, incident at the Capitol, Breitbart reported. Luttig made this prediction on MSNBC's "Deadline" on Tuesday.
"Our Constitution is written for the most part in broad, open-ended capacious language that in which the restraints on our government are defined, and our rights and liberties as Americans are defined in broadest principle. On the other end of that continuum of language in our Constitution are much more specific provisions akin to statutes in which the Constitution defines, for instance, the qualifications for the presidency of the United States," Luttig said.
"One of those qualifications is that the president must be 35 years of age. The disqualification provision of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and, therefore, the imposition of that qualification for the presidency, is stated in perhaps the clearest language possible in the Constitution," Luttig pointed out.
"It is unmistakably applicable to the former president and his role in activities on January 6." The judge is referring to the provision that states that no person who has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof" can serve in high office.
"The question is not whether the Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applies to the former president. It unquestionably does," Luttig continued.
"The questions that the Supreme Court must decide eventually are rather more technical Constitutional questions. For instance, whether the clause is self-executing and which particular officials are in a position to challenge the qualification of the former president," he added.
"But in terms of the process, the process is quite clear. I believe to a certainty that there will be secretaries of states in several of the states who will decline to place the former president on the ballot, arguing that he is unqualified by virtue of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment," Luttig predicted.
Several anti-Trump lawmakers and their accomplices in the media have claimed the demonstration at the Capitol was an "insurrection," Fox News reported. They likely had this very provision in mind when choosing that word to describe what happened.
Of course, the word was noticeably absent from the media's lexicon throughout the Black Lives Matter riots. Despite attacks on several government buildings and a federal courthouse in Portland, the onslaught was treated as garden-variety property damage.
The reason Jan. 6 continues to be an issue is because Democrats think it's a win for them. While everyone agrees that it was a terrible thing, the left's insistence that Trump was the mastermind of a plan to overthrow the government is absurd.
The problem is that Democrats have nothing else to run on. Trump remains the favorite for the GOP primary and commands nearly 40% of the vote among primary voters and far outpaces even his closest competitor in fundraising, according to Fox News.
They're afraid that if he wins the nomination, Trump could win the presidency against his weak opponent, President Joe Biden. Only 50% of likely Democratic voters want Biden to remain on the ticket, a New York Times/Siena College survey published earlier this month found.
In fact, only 45% of those polled wanted Biden against "some other" candidate making that cohort a minority. Moreover, a head-to-head matchup between Trump and Biden has them practically tied, which isn't a good sign for the incumbent.
It wouldn't be a surprise if many secretaries of state attempted to keep Trump off the ballot, whether it's legal or not. Democrats are desperate, and they'll do anything to stop another Trump presidency, Constitution or not.
