Former federal judge and prominent conservative Michael Luttig, said Donald Trump’s violation of the Constitution could not be any clearer and that the framers “envisioned” this moment when they wrote the 14th Amendment.
“Every American can read the single sentence of the disqualification clause of the 14th Amendment and understand that the former president violated the Constitution when he attempted to remain in power after his four-year term had lapsed,” Luttig said on MSNBC Saturday. “The framers of the 14th Amendment envisioned precisely this moment when they wrote the disqualification clause–the moment when despite losing a presidential election a president of the United States would attempt to remain in the presidency beyond his four-year term.”
“Section three of the 14th Amendment simply could not be any clearer that the former President is disqualified from the presidency as the Colorado Supreme Court held,” Luttig added.
The Colorado Supreme Court disqualified Trump from the ballot last month under the 14th Amendment insurrection clause for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The former president’s legal team appealed the decision to the Supreme Court Wednesday and the high court agreed Friday to hear oral arguments on Feb. 8, according to CNBC.
The 14th Amendment insurrection clause bars anyone from office who swore an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it.
Trump was also disqualified from the ballot in Maine. He appealed that ruling Tuesday to the state’s Superior Court.
Currently, there are efforts underway in more than a dozen states to remove the former president from the ballot.
While several Republicans slammed the rulings as political, Luttig argued that it is the Constitution that’s disqualifying Trump from the ballot, not Democrats.
“What the American public is going to come to understand is that the Constitution of the United States is what will forbid the former President from holding the office of the Presidency again, if that’s the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States,” Luttig said Saturday. “So that is not a question that’s open to the American people.”
“The Constitution, the United States has settled this issue, beginning with the ratification of section three of the 14th Amendment in 1868, provided that that’s what the Supreme Court of the United States holds,” he added.
