[News Terms] Will the US '14th Amendment' Block Trump from Running for President?

The '14th Amendment' is a constitutional provision in the United States that specifies the status, qualifications, rights, and conditions for deprivation of American citizenship, consisting of five sections in total. Sections 1 through 3 outline the qualifications for U.S. citizens, federal and state legislators, and officials, while Section 4 regulates debt.

After the American Civil War, the U.S. Congress amended the 13th through 15th Amendments to grant citizenship qualifications to formerly enslaved Black people who had been freed after the war. The 13th Amendment prohibits slavery, and the 15th Amendment guarantees voting rights to Black people. The 14th Amendment passed Congress in June 1866, the year after the war ended, but faced difficulties and was not ratified until July 1868, two years later.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump campaigning for the presidential election.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Every year, when the ruling and opposition parties negotiate the debt ceiling amid concerns about a possible U.S. default, the '14th Amendment' is often mentioned, specifically Section 4 regarding debt. On the 19th (local time), the Colorado Supreme Court based its ruling restricting former President Donald Trump's eligibility to run in next year's presidential election on 'Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.'

The Colorado Supreme Court ordered the state government to exclude former President Trump from the Republican primary ballot. The court decided to bar Trump from running in the presidential primary based on suspicions that he incited the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot (when Trump’s fervent supporters stormed Congress over dissatisfaction with the 2020 election results), citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. This is the first ruling among similar lawsuits filed in various parts of the U.S. that has blocked Trump’s eligibility to run for president.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment stipulates that any public official who has sworn to uphold the Constitution but later engages in insurrection or rebellion cannot hold public office again. Specifically, it states, "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, 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, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."

Local legal experts have evaluated this as "a provision drafted to prevent former Confederate officials from retaining public office after the Civil War," adding, "It was not expected that this clause would be used again." However, this section does not explicitly mention the presidency. This is why courts in other states, such as Michigan, have ruled that former President Trump can participate in state primaries.

On the 27th, the Colorado Republican Party appealed the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling restricting former President Trump’s eligibility to run in next year’s presidential election to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ultimately, this is a request for the U.S. Supreme Court to interpret Section 3 of the 14th Amendment differently from the Colorado Supreme Court. The '14th Amendment,' whose provisions were so controversial that it was ratified two years after the Civil War ended, continues to frequently complicate matters in the U.S. even 157 years later.