Judge Michael Luttig joined MSNBC’s Ali Velshi over the weekend for a segment on the ongoing discussion surrounding the possibility that former President Donald Trump may be banned from returning to office under the 14th Amendment.

“This is one of the most fundamental questions that could ever be decided under our Constitution, and it will be decided by the Supreme Court of the United States sooner rather than later, and most likely before the first primaries in which Donald Trump would be put on the ballot or disqualified from the ballot by one of those secretaries of state,” Luttig, a highly regarded conservative jurist and former federal judge, said when asked about the possibility of Trump being removed from ballots for having worked to overturn the 2020 election.

“Ali, if I may say, the disqualification clause of the 14th Amendment in Section Three of that amendment that you read at the top of this segment, the gravity of that disqualification is an insurrection or rebellion against the Constitution of the United States,” Luttig continued, adding:

It is not, according to the literal terms of Section three, an insurrection or rebellion against the authority of the United States of America. And yet it’s the fact that either, and likely both of those interpretations of Section three will ultimately be held to be reasonable that the former president would, under the law most likely be disqualified under the 14th Amendment.

Professors William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen, two conservative members of the Federalist Society, sparked this debate in mid-August with when they published a law review article titled, “The Sweep and Force of Section Three.”
In the article, they argue that based on an originalist interpretation of the Constitution, Trump’s disqualification from running again for office is automatic as it was after the Civil War to keep former Confederate soldiers and officeholders out of government.

Watch the full clip above via MSNBC.

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