Only congress has the power to enforce the 14th amendment, not the states, according to Section 5.
Only congress has the power to enforce the 14th amendment, not the states, according to Section 5.
If they wanted the states to have the power, they would have mentioned the states.
Legal precedent says otherwise
And "shall have" and "Is the only government entity that shall have" are two different things. And other legal precedent, such as with the establishment clause has previously been ruled such that "congress" ends up basically equating to the government as a whole.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
That’s been the debate on both items. I’ve seen article talk about each.
Hopefully scotus will clarify. To me it reads the president would be included but only Congress can invoke it.
Also section three lists out a lot of positions, but fails to mention the presidency itself. Odd oversight, don't y'all think?
or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State
It’s pretty clear if you read it.
The president is included. Poorly worded sure, but not a loophole.
as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officer_of_the_United_States
It doesn't list that many. Did you know this exact question came up at the time the Amendment was being drafted? https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/lsb/lsb10569
Specifically:
One scholar notes that the drafting history of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment suggests that the office of the President is covered:
During the debate on Section Three, one Senator asked why ex-Confederates “may be elected President or Vice President of the United States, and why did you all omit to exclude them? I do not understand them to be excluded from the privilege of holding the two highest offices in the gift of the nation.” Another Senator replied that the lack of specific language on the Presidency and Vice- Presidency was irrelevant: “Let me call the Senator’s attention to the words ‘or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States.’”
I'll highlight that last bit again:
Another Senator replied that the lack of specific language on the Presidency and Vice- Presidency was irrelevant: “Let me call the Senator’s attention to the words ‘or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States.’”
That is from this paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3748639
There you go. You can stop being a traitor now, please and thanks.