Calls for Congress to take measures to take Trump's eligibility, which reached a crescendo after the Jan. 6 riot, have since declined. But those who remain active on the issue say discussions about applying Section 3 of the 14th Amendment have been ongoing.
"If anything, the idea has waxed and waned," said Laurence Tribe, a constitutional expert at Harvard Law School. "I hear it being raised with considerable frequency these days both by media commentators and by members of Congress and their staff, some of whom have sought my advice on how to implement Section 3."
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An analysis by The Hill found that around a dozen Democratic lawmakers have spoken either publicly or privately over the last year about how Section 3 of the 14th Amendment might apply to those who engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6.
Among those whose offices have spoken recently with Tribe are Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who sits on the Jan. 6 House Select Committee; Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who chairs the powerful House Judiciary Committee; and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.).
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"I continue to explore all legal paths to ensure that the people who tried to subvert our democracy are not in charge of it," Wasserman Schultz told The Hill.
Nadler and Raskin did not answer a request for comment.
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Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified after the Civil War, says that officeholders who "have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same" are barred from future office.
Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, served as a House manager during Trump's impeachment trial over his role in the Jan. 6 attack. Days after Trump's hearing in the Senate, Raskin examined the constitutional provision in a press interview, saying Trump was "right in the bullseye middle of that group."
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"The point is that the constitutional purpose is clear, to keep people exactly like Donald Trump and other traitors to the union from holding public office," he told ABC News on Feb. 17, adding that the legal mechanics would require "more research."
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Most constitutional scholars who spoke to The Hill think the provision is not "self-executing." In other terms, that means applying Section 3 to Trump would demand an additional effort by lawmakers to make the 14th Amendment operative.
Some scholars think that Congress, by a simple majority in both chambers, could act on its own to find Trump engaged in insurrection, which would incriminate the constitutional provision. Restoring Trump's eligibility under the 14th Amendment would then require a supermajority vote.
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