N.H. Attorney General will consider Trump’s eligibility to run again

The state Attorney General’s Office will take a look at one of the most contentious legal questions of the presidential race: whether Donald Trump’s actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol means he can’t be elected again.

“The Secretary of State’s Office has requested the Attorney General’s Office to advise the Secretary of State regarding the meaning of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the provision’s potential applicability to the upcoming presidential election cycle,” is how the office put it in a press release Tuesday.

Section 3 of the 14th amendment, known as the disqualification clause, was enacted after the Civil War. It says that people can not assume public office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the United States, or had “given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” unless they were granted amnesty by a two-thirds vote of Congress.

Some people argue that this means Trump is ineligible to be re-elected president because of his actions before and after the Jan. 6 riot, while others argue that the provision does not apply for a variety of reasons.

“Neither the Secretary of State’s Office nor the Attorney General’s Office has taken any position” on the question, the press release said, adding that officials “are aware of public discourse” about it including “misinformation asserting or implying that the Secretary of State’s Office has already taken a position.”

“The Attorney General’s Office is now carefully reviewing the legal issues involved,” the release concluded.

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