From the Peanut Gallery

Getting beyond what some may see as overly technical conclusions as to whether the President is an “officer” of the United States and whether Donald Trump ever took an oath to “support” the Constitution, we get to the first of the meatier questions, was the attack on the Capitol an “insurrection or rebellion” as those terms are used in section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment?

The Anderson petition ‘s position seems to be to rely upon various subsequent statements by different parts of the government that the events of January 6 were an insurrection. That’s too conclusory for me. Nor is it helpful to cite a modern dictionary definition.

The original Constitution uses that term “insurrection” exactly once, in Article I, section 8, where Congress is given the power to “To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” The only case to determine that one of the participants in the January 6 attack on the Capitol engaged in insurrection, New Mexico v. Griffin (decided just over a year ago), defined an insurrection as “an (1) assemblage of persons, (2) acting to prevent the execution of one or more federal laws, (3) for a public purpose, (4) through the use of violence, force, or intimidation by numbers.” The court cited the trial transcript as well as sources roughly contemporary to the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment.

While I do not have ready access to the cited sources and that definition may not be perfect (I am concerned that it could bring in small stuff), the events of January 6, 2021, were not small stuff. An armed mob overwhelmed security, broke into the Capitol, and prevented Congress from doing its constitutional duty for several hours. People, including a police officer, died during these events. It was not a “mere” riot, or “just” a sit-in.

For these reasons, I am satisfied that the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was an “insurrection” and that, under section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, any person who had previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States and who engaged in that insurrection be a member of Congress, or presidential elector, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State.

In my last post on the elements of President Trump’s potential disqualification, I am going to consider whether he “engaged” in this insurrection.

Jay Bohn

September 18, 2023

The second of the elements I set forth in last week’s post about former President Donald Trump’s possible disqualification based upon Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment is the question of whether Trump took an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. Here again we face the unusual situation that the only time when he would have taken such an oath was when he was inaugurated as President on January 20, 2017, as he did not previously hold any public office that would have required an oath. But the oath he took that day does not promise to “support” the Constitution.

As I stated in my last post, Article VI requires an oath to “support” the Constitution be taken by “Senators and Representatives . . ., and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States.” Uniquely, the wording of the oath required to be taken upon assuming the presidency is specifically set forth in the Constitution: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” A new President swears to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution, not to “support” it.¹

The petition in Anderson v. Griswold, the Colorado case seeking to exclude Trump from the ballot, does not directly address this point. Paragraph 353 correctly references the wording of the oath that Trump was required to, and did, take, to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution, but paragraph 358 merely concludes that this oath was an “oath … to support the Constitution of the United States.”

As with the question of whether the President is an “Officer,” I do not believe that the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment affirmatively intended to immunize a President from potential disqualification, I just don’t think they were particularly worried about it or considered that the presidency would be the first public office a person would obtain.

Jay Bohn

September 14, 2023.

1. I am not aware that anyone has ever taken the position that the President must take an oath under Article VI in addition to the oath prescribed by Article II, and there is certainly no suggestion that President Trump actually did so. ↩︎

A few days ago I started what is going to be a multi-post thread in which I propose to discuss whether Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment disqualifies Donald Trump from being reelected as President of the United States due to his actions with respect to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The first “element” as it were of the case for Trump’s disqualification is whether the President is an officer of the United States. This is important because the disqualification only applies to persons “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State.” Donald Trump, so far as I understand his biography, has only been President, so unless the President is “an officer of the United States,” he is not subject to disqualification.

The Constitution uses the term “officer” twelve times:

• Article I, §2, refers to the Speaker and other Officers of the House of Representatives;
• Article I, §3, refers to the “other Officers” of Senate (besides the Vice President of the United States who is its President);
• Article I, §8, mentions “Officer” twice; it refers to the Appointment of Officers of the Militia and, in the “Necessary and Proper” clause it mentions “Powers vested “Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof;”
• Article II, §1, uses “Officer” twice when referring to who would exercise the powers and duties of the President in “the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President;”
• Article II, §2, uses the term “Officer” three times: the President’s ability to require the written opinion “of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments;” and the appointment of “Officers of the United States,” either “by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate” or (for inferior Officers as authorized by Law by “the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.;”
• Article II, §3, provides that the President “shall Commission all the Officers of the United States;”
• Article II, §4, renders liable to removal upon Impeachment and Conviction the ” President, Vice President and all [not “all other”] civil Officers of the United States;” and, finally,
• Article VI requires an oath to “support” the Constitution be taken by “Senators and Representatives . . ., and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States.”

I submit that there is nothing in this language describes the President as an Officer and several provisions which suggest that he is not: neither he nor the Vice President is commissioned, the impeachment provision does not refer to “other” officers and the wording of the oath of office of the President (but not the Vice President) is specifically provided elsewhere.

The petition is Anderson v. Griswold, the case before a Colorado state court that seeks the declaration of disqualification, relies upon the position that because the presidency is an “Office,”¹ its holder must be an “Officer.” and an attorney general’s opinion contemporaneous with the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment.

I will acknowledge that it at least seems counter-intuitive that a local dogcatcher who swore an oath (will little ceremony) to support the Constitution could be disqualified but the President is not. While I doubt that there was a policy reason for the difference, it may have been overlooked because Franklin Pierce, the only former President who took the side of the Confederacy, was already dead.²

At this point I am not convinced that Trump’s having taken an oath as President satisfies the first element as I have defined it. It will be interesting to see what other arguments are made, but I hope the desired end of disqualification does not lead to an unjustified conclusion on this point.

Jay Bohn

September 11, 2023

1. I’m not going to go through all the times that the Constitution uses the term “Office,” some exclusively referring to the Presidency, but I do agree that the Presidency is an “Office” of the United States, so any person who is disqualified cannot be President. ↩︎
2. While I do not think that Section 3 is limited to the Civil War, it was certainly written with that in mind. ↩︎