The New Yorker [free to read]: “Earlier this month, two conservative law professors announced that they would be publishing an article, which will appear in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review next year, arguing that Donald Trump is ineligible for the Presidency. The professors, William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen, make the case that unless Congress grants Trump amnesty, he cannot run for or hold the office of the Presidency again because of his behavior surrounding the events of January 6th. The argument rests on Baude and Paulsen’s interpretation of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that officeholders, such as the President, who have taken an oath to “support” the Constitution and “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” will no longer hold such an office. Several days ago, Laurence Tribe, a liberal law professor, and J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals, wrote an article for The Atlantic, in which they essentially endorsed the view advanced by Baude and Paulsen: “The former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and the resulting attack on the U.S. Capitol, place him squarely within the ambit of the disqualification clause, and he is therefore ineligible to serve as president ever again.” …If you just step back from the legalese, the clause has its origins in the postbellum era. It was to disqualify persons who had previously taken an oath and then engaged in insurrection or rebellion. I have had so many people in the past forty-eight hours say to me, It just makes common sense, doesn’t it? And I say to them, Yes, I think it does in its application to the former President. He had taken an oath to support the Constitution, and he engaged in insurrection or rebellion, or he had provided assistance, aid, or comfort to a rebellion in or around January 6th, when he attempted to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. And he inspired and at least gave aid and comfort to the attack on the United States Capitol for the purpose of interfering with and preventing the joint session from counting the electoral votes for the Presidency, the former President knowing that the electoral votes had been cast for then candidate Joe Biden. That’s a classic understanding of an insurrection or rebellion against the authority of the United States…”