A top scholar backing the theory that former President Donald Trump should be removed from the 2024 presidential ballot under the Fourteenth Amendment said Saturday he no longer believes this to be true.
Just a week after coming out in favor of the theory, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law professor Steven Calabresi changed his mind, arguing that Trump’s name should appear on the ballot and that Americans should vote against him. Several predominantly left-wing groups have filed lawsuits based on the idea that Trump is disqualified under the Fourteenth Amendment, which bars certain government officials who took an oath to the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.
Calabresi said he no longer believes that the category of official listed in the amendment’s text that he applied to Trump, “an officer of the United States,” actually extends to the presidency.
“Trump is loathsome, but because of a technicality in the drafting of the Disqualification Clause of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Clause does not apply to Trump,” he wrote a Reason article Saturday.
Four categories are listed in the amendment’s text: members of Congress,…
