In a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the coalition presses Congress to recognize that former President Trump is disqualified from future office under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 19, 2021) – A broad coalition of legal and advocacy organizations sent a letter yesterday to Senator Chuck Schumer urging Congress to disqualify former President Trump from future office under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The coalition urges Congress to exhaust all available options to hold former president Trump accountable for this role in the events leading up to the deadly January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“Impeachment, conviction, and disqualification might be considered the primary method for holding the former President to account, and prohibiting his return to public office. But it is not the only tool that the Constitution provides to address grave threats of this nature to the Republic. Section Three is another. Drafters of this provision were concerned that former Confederate leaders would use state and federal positions to corrode and subvert the fragile constitutional order at a time when the nation was just emerging from the Civil War.”

The signers of the letter include Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Common Cause, Constitutional Accountability Center, DemCast, Democracy 21, Digital Democracy Project, Equal Justice Society, Free Speech For People, Government Accountability Project, Mainers for Accountable Leadership, MoveOn Civic Action, Project on Government Oversight, Protect Democracy, Public Citizen, and Stand Up America.

The letter states that Congress could either:

• Pass legislation that (a) includes findings and expresses its view that Section Three applies to former President Trump and (b) establishes a formal enforcement mechanism for federal courts to determine whether Section Three applies to former President Trump (i.e., judicial review) and any other office-holder who engaged in the January 6th insurrection; or
• Pass a resolution with factual findings and expressing its view that Section Three applies to former President Trump. Though a resolution would not have the force of law, it would cast a cloud over any future candidacy by Trump and provide grounds for further actions challenging a future candidacy.

Read the full letter here.