Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3:
"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."
Could the disqualification clause prevent Donald Trump from running for president in 2024?
Theoretically, yes. Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment gives Congress the power to disqualify someone who has already held a public office from holding "any office" if they participate in an "insurrection or rebellion" against the United States.
But since this mechanism has never been used against a president, there are still questions to resolve. The disqualification clause applies to current and former federal officials, state officials, and military officials. However, legal scholars are split on whether the disqualification clause applies to the presidency. It's likely the 14th Amendment will continue to come up in conversations approaching the 2024 presidential election.
Agreed. The question becomes what actually constitutes an insurrection. The American Civil War was obviously an armed rebellion against the government of the UNITED STATES with the Confederacy forming it’s own government and Constitution.
January 6th being more akin to an out of control political rally, hardly compares. The United States government was never in any danger of being supplanted by a rowdy unorganized crowd of protestors. Nor did they form their own government or refuse to follow US laws. Honestly if the 10,000+ people there that day had actually wanted to seize the Capitol and occupy it, they probably could have easily done so.
Just my opinion.