Letters to the Editor: Will the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court OK disqualifying Trump?

To the editor: The idea of excluding former President Trump from the 2024 ballot because he is an insurrectionist is intriguing. Some of the greatest legal minds in our country have advocated this.

I see two problems. First, it would have to be endorsed by the U.S. Supreme Court. I don’t believe this 6-3 conservative majority would allow that.

But even more, taking Trump off ballots in states like California would have no effect. He’ll win no electoral votes here anyway.

For this to meaningfully affect the election, he would have to be disqualified in purple states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin. Not having access to electoral votes in those states would ensure his defeat in the electoral college.

Of course for Trump, winning fewer than 270 electoral votes does not guarantee that he won’t contest the election.

Richard Shafarman, Santa Clarita

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To the editor: Section 3 of the 14th Amendment should disqualify Trump from running again. But it is not, as law professor Kermit Roosevelt claims, a “democracy–protecting provision.” He needs a history lesson.

Section 2 of the amendment effectively allows states to disenfranchise any group of citizens, penalized only by reduced congressional representation.

Nor was ex-Confederate Wade Hampton responsible for disenfranchising South Carolina’s Black citizens after he won the governorship in 1876. Hampton was a paternalistic racist, but some educated Black voters — including Martin Delany, the highest-ranking former Black soldier — supported him.

Disenfranchisement’s ringleader was future governor and senator “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman, unaffected by Section 3. More poignantly than Hampton, Tillman reveals Trump’s complicated threat to democracy.

Like Hampton, Tillman was rich. And, like Trump, he exploited populist appeals to poor whites threatened by Blacks. Those disaffected whites hailed Tillman, not culturally elite Hampton, for championing democracy. Tillman’s 1940 statue outside the South California Capitol is inscribed, “The friend and leader of the common people.”

Brook Thomas, Irvine

The writer is a professor emeritus of English at UC Irvine who has written about the relationship between literature, U.S. law and U.S. history.

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To the editor: Most Americans have no clue what Section 3 of the 14th Amendment means. Trump die-hards will support him no matter what.

But MAGA supporters can still cling to racism even if they don’t vote for Trump. He doesn’t care about them — they’re just useful tools for him to get back into the Oval Office.

People do not need to validate their racism by remaining loyal to Trump. You can be man or woman enough to own that yourself.

Voting to uphold democracy is another matter. White racism is a choice, but one day you might grow up and not want a dictator controlling your life or your children’s freedom.

You don’t have to toe the party line. Democracy is the light at the end of the tunnel.

Donald Peppars, Pomona