What I’m saying is this: is the conscience clause designed for those who cannot vote for a nominee because he may be a criminal or possesses some other awful trait or can the clause kick in because the delegates are pouting because Cruz lost the popular vote?
There are no conditions on the conscience clause as far as I read. If the delegate believes the candidate does not uphold the party platform or would be detrimental to the party and/or country, they do not have to vote for them.
Seriesly, read the article, it’s pretty interesting.
Does conscious clause mean:
1) you found out he is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors
2) you just don’t like the guy
#1 is a reasonable standard (as it is found in the Constitution). #2 is not. Nobody is making the “high crimes and misdemeanors” case against Trump. Nobody is saying Trump has committed an impeachable offense so he should not be the nominee.
So no, there is no scenario where the conscious clause would be valid as far as Trump is concerned.
Ironically, delegates to the Democratic convention could make the “high crimes and misdemeanors” case against voting for Hillary. Her bribery/influence-peddling over US uranium supplies by itself is an impeachable offense.