Yesterday, I posted to SSRN a formal reply (see here) to a forthcoming paper by William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen, a pair of legal scholars who claim that the Disqualification Clause set forth in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment automatically disqualifies former president Trump from holding federal office for giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the USA.

As it happens, five years ago this month (28 September 2018, to be more precise) I presented a paper of mine on “Domestic Constitutional Violence” (DCV) at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. In summary, my DCV paper, which is available here or here, explores what I call “the laws of constitutional necessity”, i.e. the constitutional and statutory powers of the president to use military force to quell insurrections and rebellions within the United States. (It is also a federal crime to engage in a rebellion or insurrection; see the video below or Section 2383 of Volume 18 of the U.S. Code, 18 U.S.C. § 2383.)

In other words, a possible connection exists between the laws of constitutional necessity and the Disqualification Clause, which prohibits certain people who have engaged in an insurrection or rebellion from holding any federal office. Stay tuned, for I will further explore this connection next week …