the 14th amendment was written against former enemies of the US, who had held public office, such as fought against the union in the civil war, and it was passed in 1868.
And the supreme court overturned the only time it was ever used against an elected representative since reconstruction. If Trump was declared not guilty of the charges, a censure wont hold up in court. Censure just does not fit this situation. Trump was not a confederate office holder.
Section Three of the amendment, gave Congress the authority to bar public officials, who took an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, from holding office if they "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the Constitution. The intent was to prevent the president from allowing former leaders of the Confederacy to regain power within the U.S. government after securing a presidential pardon. It states that a two-thirds majority vote in Congress is required to allow public officials who had engaged in rebellion to regain the rights of American citizenship and hold government or military office.
It states that: "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."
Section 3: Disqualification
Section 3 disqualifies from federal or state office
[214] anyone who has taken an oath to support the Constitution
[215][216] and either "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the Constitution,
[217] or "given aid to the enemies" of the US.
[218] Although the section's text does not explicitly describe how it is invoked, by congressional precedent, disqualification is invoked by a simple majority of both chambers, and can be removed by a supermajority of both chambers.
[217][218]
The intent of Section 3 was to prohibit civil or military
Confederate officers from holding public office.
[215][217][218] Within months of losing the Civil War, Southern states sent "unrepentant" former Confederates "used to exercising power" back to Congress, such as former vice president of the Confederacy
Alexander H. Stephens. Members of Congress refused to seat them and drafted Section 3 in order to prevent those who violated their oath to protect the Constitution from holding office in the future.
[216] Southerners strongly opposed Section 3, arguing it would hurt reunification of the country.
[215]
Section 3 has only been used a few times in history.
[216] The disqualification was seldom enforced in the South.
[215][216] In 1872, at the urging of President
Ulysses S. Grant, Congress passed the
Amnesty Act, removing the disqualification for all but the most senior Confederates.
[215][216][218] In 1898, during the
Spanish–American War, Congress passed another law broadening the amnesty
[218][219][220] as a "gesture of national unity".
[215] The
Reconstruction era waiver does not bar Section 3 from being used today.
[215][218] In a symbolic effort in the 1970s, Congress posthumously lifted the disqualification for Confederate general
Robert E. Lee in 1975,
[221] and Confederate president
Jefferson Davis in 1978.
[214][215][222]
Section 3 has only been invoked once since Reconstruction, when it was used to prevent
Socialist Party of America member
Victor L. Berger of
Wisconsin, convicted of violating the
Espionage Act for opposing US entry into
World War I, from assuming his seat in the House of Representatives in 1919 and 1920.
[215][217][223] However, his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court in Berger v. United States (1921). Berger was then elected and seated to three successive terms in the 1920s.[224]
During the
second impeachment of Donald Trump, Section 3 was cited in the Article of Impeachment as part of the basis for barring Trump from holding future office.
[225][226] It is disputed whether Section 3 can be used as a potential "alternate path to disqualification [from office]" now that the Senate has acquitted Trump.
[215][217][227]
