Donald Trump could be banned from the 2024 ballot in six states -- here's how

Should Donald Trump survive his legal difficulties and challenges from other Republican Party contenders for the 2024 presidential nomination he may find his hopes of returning to the Oval Office stymied by his inability to get on the ballot in multiple states.

As S.V. Date reports for the HuffPost, the former president, who is being investigated for his part in setting off an insurrection on Jan 6th of last year, may find himself banned from appearing on ballots in six southern states -- including North Carolina, Georgia and Florida --- due to a law passed in 1868 following the Civil War.

As Date wrote, "The third section of the 14th Amendment prohibits people who swore to defend the Constitution, but who subsequently took part in an insurrection against the United States, from holding state or federal office."

As the report notes, the law was passed to "put the burden" on states that seceded, compelling them to "keep those who have been involved in insurrections from seeking office" -- which could include the former president.

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According to Gerard Magliocca, a law professor at Indiana University, the law is "still on the books," adding, "The law is still there. And it could be appealed to.”

"The six states affected by the 1868 law — North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida — together have 88 electoral votes, or 33% of the total needed to win the presidency. Trump won all of them in 2020 except for Georgia, which he lost by 12,000 votes," Date wrote before adding, "The former president was impeached for inciting an insurrection by the House, but not enough Republicans in the Senate voted to convict him, arguing that they did not have the authority because Trump was no longer president. Had they done so, a simple majority vote could then have banned Trump from holding federal office for the rest of his life."

According to Ron Fein, of Free Speech For People, "It would have been great if Congress had already taken care of this. We fully intend to pursue this type of challenge if Mr. Trump chooses to run.”

"Before the 14th Amendment had been ratified, Congress passed a law in 1868 making enforcement of the insurrectionist ban in the proposed amendment a condition of six Southern states’ readmission to the Union. The remaining Confederate states were readmitted after the amendment had been ratified, and so the laws letting them back in did not contain that specific requirement," the HuffPost report adds. "Fein said that the 1868 law’s language does not so much create a different standard for office-holders in those six states as it does illustrate that lawmakers then — the same ones who passed the 14th Amendment — wanted all states to enforce its anti-insurrectionist restriction."

You can read more here.