The very last words of an Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court regarding Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment:
“As Missouri Republican John B. Henderson declared the day he cast his vote for the Fourteenth Amendment in the Senate, “The language of this section is so framed as to disenfranchise from office the leaders of the past rebellion as well as the leaders of any rebellion hereafter to come.” May the curse of that hereafter never come again.”
___
The whole conclusion:
The meaning of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment is best discerned in the actual history of Reconstruction. Haunted by the nation’s suffering and fearful of disloyalty and ongoing political violence, Congress conducted an investigation into conditions in the South and determined that the disqualification of office-holders who had engaged in an insurrection against the Constitution was necessary for the security of the republic. Their concerns included a possible bid for the presidency by Jefferson Davis. Section Three also gave the federal government the authority to guide reconstructed ex- Confederate states to find new leadership committed to equal rights for all. With an eye toward establishing enduring fundamental law and ensuring domestic tranquility, they framed a provision designed to hold future insurrectionists accountable by the same means. They knew that no one in the United States is above the law, not even the President, and that no republican government can afford to return insurrectionists to office.
As Missouri Republican John B. Henderson declared the day he cast his vote for the Fourteenth Amendment in the Senate, “The language of this section is so framed as to disenfranchise from office the leaders of the past rebellion as well as the leaders of any rebellion hereafter to come.” May the curse of that hereafter never come again.
Link to the entire brief:
Leave a Reply