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Election 2024 Trump Insurrection Amendment Legal Issues
FILE - The Supreme Court is seen at sunset in Washington, on Jan. 24, 2019. The Supreme Court will be taking its first look in the 156-year history of the 14th Amendment at a provision, Section 3, that's meant to keep former officeholders who "engaged in insurrection" from ever regaining power. The stakes couldn't be higher in arguments taking place on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Trump's fate and an obscure section of the Constitution collide at Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will be taking its first look in the 156-year history of the 14th Amendment at a provision, Section 3, that’s meant to keep former officeholders who “engaged in insurrection” from ever regaining power

By MARK SHERMAN and NICHOLAS RICCARDI
Published - Feb 06, 2024, 12:32 AM ET
Last Updated - Feb 06, 2024, 12:32 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — From civil rights to privacy, the 14th Amendment has been a foundation for forging the norms of American law and democracy. But one of its provisions, adopted after the Civil War in 1868, has gotten almost no attention until now: That’s Section 3, the part that’s meant to keep former officeholders who “engaged in insurrection” from ever regaining power.

The Supreme Court on Thursday will be taking its first look at the insurrection clause in a case in which the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Former President Donald Trump is the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. But Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado argue that Trump is disqualified from being president again because he engaged in insurrection by trying to overturn his loss in the 2020 election, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Colorado case was one of several filed around the country seeking to block Trump from state ballots.

The voters say that if Trump can’t be president again, he shouldn’t be on the ballot, and the Colorado Supreme Court agreed in a first-of-its kind decision.

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