Abstract
The Fourteenth Amendment established the constitutional conditions for the readmission of those states which had attempted to secede from the Union during the American Civil War. Section Three of that amendment, when enforced under the powers granted by Section Five, prevented the leaders of the recent rebellion from returning to Congress, holding any state level office, or receiving any appointment by Democrat President Andrew Johnson, absent congressional permission. Its focus, in other words, was on rebellious disruption of state level decisionmaking and the potentially disruptive appointments by President Johnson. Whether Section Three accomplishes anything more remains unclear as a matter of history and ambiguous as a matter of constitutional text. ...
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Recommended Citation
Kurt T. Lash, The Meaning and Ambiguity of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment, 47 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 309 (2024).
