To ban Donald Trump from public office, impeachment is not needed, it is enough to simply and quickly apply section three of the 14th amendment of the Constitution. Two authoritative American jurists, Bruce Ackerman and Samuel R. Rosen, professors of law at the Yale Law School and Indiana University, respectively, suggest this in an article in the Washington Post. Section Three of the 14th Amendment provides, among other things, that no person who has been sworn in as an executive officer can hold any civil or military office if he is satisfied that he has been involved “in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution.
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According to the two experts, a simple majority vote would suffice of both chambers, instead of the two-thirds foreseen in the Senate for the sentence in the impeachment process. Under the 14th amendment, Trump could only reapply for the White House if he could persuade the future Congress, “with a two-thirds vote of each chamber, to remove this disability.” The outgoing president, they admit, could challenge the decision in courts but it would be risky, because he would have to testify under oath by responding to a detailed questioning by government lawyers about his conduct in connection with the assault of Congress by his fans.
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Also, if the judicial authority confirmed the decision of parliament, his ruling would defeat far-right accusations that Trump is the victim of partisan revenge. The two jurists therefore invite us to follow this path and take a step back, stopping a “hasty” impeachment which, in their opinion, could not be completed by January 20 and could not continue after Trump has left the White House: “the Constitution provides for the ‘impeachment only as a tool to proceed against a president while he is in office “,” to protect the country, not to punish the transgressor “, they underline.
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January 12, 2021 (change January 12, 2021 | 05:33)
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