This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Do you know what the 14^th amendment to the U.S. Constitution is?

Well, I didn’t either.

So, I read a piece in the Washington Post yesterday.

Here is the best summary:

Section 3 explicitly bars insurrectionists like Donald Trump from holding “any office, civil or military, under the United States” unless “two-thirds of each House” of Congress lifts the ban.

The Post article was written by Bruce Ackerman, a professor of law and science at Yale University, and Gerard Magliocca, a professor at the Indiana University School of Law.

It posited that the House January 6 Committee should have focused on the 14^th amendment because of its virtues, say, in regard to the slim chances of a criminal indictment against Trump.

Here is how the professors’ article started:

“Apart from a relatively brief mention in its 800-page report, the January 6 Committee missed the Constitution’s preferred punishment for former high officials turned insurrectionists.  The committee tries to persuade Americans that criminal prosecution is the only adequate response to Donald Trump’s systematic efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

“Nearly forgotten debates over ratification of the 14th Amendment point to a better, less divisive approach.  Nowadays, the amendment is best known for the Section 1 guarantee of ‘equal protection of the laws.’  At the time of the debates in 1868, however, Section 3 — barring insurrectionists from future elected offices — was the hot-button issue.

“Section 3 targeted Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. senator who was president of the rebellious Confederacy, along with other leaders of the attempted overthrow of the U.S. Constitution.  These men had ‘taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States’ before the Civil War, then betrayed their oath by joining in ‘insurrection’ or ‘rebellion’ during the conflict.

“Section 3 explicitly barred them from holding ‘any office, civil or military, under the United States’ unless ‘two-thirds of each House’ of Congress lifted the ban.”

Sounds good to me.

Surely better than trying to get Trump on criminal grounds, even if he deserves that result.

No doubt, as he always has, Trump will try to squirrel his way out of criminal liability.  Or, he will just delay the processes to the extent that they might even go away over time.

Think back to former president Gerald Ford who explained when pardoning his predecessor, Richard M. Nixon, who resigned amid scandal: “During this long period of delay and potential litigation, ugly passions would again be aroused.  And our people would again be polarized in their opinions.”

One piece of good news here is that a Member of Congress, Jamie B. Raskin from Maryland, already has proposed a legislative solution.  His proposal would grant special jurisdiction to a three-judge federal court in the District of Columbia to determine, within three months, whether Trump’s involvement in the assault on Capitol Hill amounted to an “insurrection.” The panel’s decision would receive automatic Supreme Court review.

American history is marked by moments of political evasion — as well as moments of genuine courage.  Congress, led by Republicans willing to break with their party’s extremists, should bring the January 6 tragedy to a close and enable Americans to set the nation on the road to a post-Trump future.

The 14th amendment is a solid way to achieve that result.