Judge Luttig Explains Why Trump Is Disqualified From Presidency
Jordan Rubin also interviewed Judge Michael Luttig for Deadline's Law blog. Luttig has been at the center of the biggest legal and democracy issues of our time, and explains how Donald Trump is disqualified from retaking the White House under the 14th Amendment, why the former president is not immune from prosecution, and what a second Trump term would mean for the country.
Jordan Rubin: Judge, you’ve been thinking a lot lately about this 14th Amendment issue. Why is it so important to democracy, in your view?
J. Michael Luttig: Section 3 of the 14th Amendment ... disqualifies any person who, having taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, thereafter engages in an insurrection or rebellion against the Constitution of the United States, disqualifying that person from holding high public office in the future, including the presidency.
So it’s more than just a proscription and disqualification for anti-democratic conduct by an individual, but, in this circumstance, it is that and it would apply in this instance to disqualify the former president from holding the presidency again, because of his effort, plan and attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, knowing that he had lost that election to then-candidate Joe Biden.