Trump’s fate and an obscure section of the Constitution collide at Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (AP) — From civil rights to privacy, the 14th Amendment has been a foundation for forging the norms of American law and democracy. But one of its provisions, adopted after the Civil War in 1868, has gotten almost no attention until now: That’s Section 3, the part that’s meant to keep former officeholders who “engaged in insurrection” from ever regaining power.

The Supreme Court on Thursday will be taking its first look at the insurrection clause in a case in which the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Former President Donald Trump is the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. But Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado argue that Trump is disqualified from being president again because he engaged in insurrection by trying to overturn his loss in the 2020 election, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Colorado case was one of several filed around the country seeking to block Trump from state ballots.

The voters say that if Trump can’t be president again, he shouldn’t be on the ballot, and the Colorado Supreme Court agreed in a first-of-its kind decision.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«MORE ON TRUMP» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> MORE ON TRUMP </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Here’s how 2 sentences in the Constitution rose from obscurity to ensnare Donald Trump<use xlink:href="#play-icon" xmlns:xlink=«http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink»> </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Can Trump be on the ballot? It’s the Supreme Court’s biggest election test since Bush v. Gore<use