Could the 14th Amendment bar Donald Trump from becoming president again?

DONALD TRUMP’S campaign for re-election is dogged with legal woes. The former president faces the prospect of four criminal trials on felony charges, which will overlap with the Republican primary season and the general-election campaign. But another type of legal trouble could further complicate his return to the White House.

America’s constitution—which Mr Trump swore to uphold on January 20th 2017—includes a provision barring people who have taken such an oath from holding federal office if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the country or “given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof”. This language, found in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, was ratified after the civil war to prevent former Confederate rebels from having a hand in running the country they had tried to saw in half. The disqualification clause has seen something of a renaissance. A year ago, Couy Griffin, then a county commissioner in New Mexico, was removed from office by a state judge for engaging in insurrection  at the Capitol on January 6th. But could this constitutional provision really thwart Mr Trump’s quest for a second presidential term?