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Page Number: 4

4 

TRUMP v. ANDERSON 

did, we now reverse. 

Per Curiam 

II 
A 
Proposed by Congress in 1866 and ratified by the States
in  1868,  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  “expand[ed]  federal
power at the expense of state autonomy” and thus “funda-
mentally  altered  the  balance  of  state  and  federal  power 
struck by the Constitution.”  Seminole Tribe of Fla. v. Flor-
ida, 517 U. S. 44, 59 (1996); see also Ex parte Virginia, 100 
U. S. 339, 345 (1880).  Section 1 of the Amendment, for in-
stance, bars the States from “depriv[ing] any person of life, 
liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law”  or
“deny[ing]  to  any  person  . . .  the  equal  protection  of  the
laws.”  And Section 5 confers on Congress “power to enforce” 
those  prohibitions,  along  with  the  other  provisions  of  the 
Amendment, “by appropriate legislation.” 

Section 3 of the Amendment likewise restricts state au-
tonomy,  but  through  different  means.   It  was  designed to
help ensure an enduring Union by preventing former Con-
federates from returning to power in the aftermath of the 
Civil  War.  See,  e.g.,  Cong.  Globe,  39th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.,
2544 (1866) (statement of Rep. Stevens, warning that with-
out  appropriate  constitutional  reforms  “yelling  secession-
ists  and  hissing  copperheads”  would  take  seats  in  the 
House); id., at 2768 (statement of Sen. Howard, lamenting 
prospect of a “State Legislature . . . made up entirely of dis-
loyal  elements”  absent  a  disqualification  provision).  Sec-
tion 3 aimed to prevent such a resurgence by barring from
office “those who, having once taken an oath to support the 
Constitution of the United States, afterward went into re-
bellion  against  the  Government  of  the  United  States.” 
Cong. Globe, 41st Cong., 1st Sess., 626 (1869) (statement of 
Sen. Trumbull).

Section 3 works by imposing on certain individuals a pre-
ventive and severe penalty—disqualification from holding