program are just getting warmed up when we have to go to a commercial. such are the perils of commercial television of course. that happened thursday night when historian david blight was explaining to us the history of the 14th amendment and how it has become the legal basis for banning donald trump from the presidential ballot in some states. the text is clear here. make no mistake. there are many constitutional lawyers have argued this. it s the politics that of course is not clear. and we could end up, and i ve read the decision by the secretary of state in maine, on at least two of the lawsuits, the third one didn t make much
cause could win the presidency again and come back into power, unless we use the terror of our laws to prevent it. joining us once again is david blight, professor of american history an afro american studies at yale university. processor professor, brightening you very much for coming back. i can t tell you how agonizing it is for me to go to a can commercials iterations like that and i just want to give you more time to expand on your point. with the departure point being what we found and on trump s new legal filing in maine, or one of the points where his maine lawyer makes is, the 14th amendment bars someone who engaged in insurrection or gave aid and comfort to insurrectionists, from holding office. and the legal filing says, it
again, the key thing to know here, and first of all i have to say, as a historian reconstruction, there are a lot of those who study this, and i am by no means the only so-called expert. but it s like section three is risen from the dead. it was just gone. nobody ever cared about. nobody ever read it. now every time i turn on the news or read the paper, i m seeing the full text of it. thank god for this constitutional education. but again, that came out of first what was known as the joint committee on reconstruction, a group of 15 members of congress brought together in the winter of 1866 to assess, okay, what has this civil war wrought, and what should we do about reconstruction? and that led to the debates of how to fashion an amendment in various parts that would begin
lawrence, i m gobsmacked by some of these numbers. i m just gonna leave it to you while i scratch my head. aly you , know that thing happens once in awhile where one of our great guests guests really is getting warmed up right when we have to go to commercial break because that s life on commercial television. that happened last week with yale professor david blight, who is an expert on the 14th amendment. he knows everything about how it came to be, the congressional debate about it. we are bringing back tonight finishes thoughts about that. that is worth watching because the most important amendment nobody ever thought about six months ago, and this is worth staying and listening to. certainly not in this context. and he will follow harvard law professor laurence tribe, also an expert on constitutional law and the 14th amendment, who will give us his view of how the 14th amendment, how it has the power to keep donald trump
us tonight. thank you for giving us your reading assignments about 1866. we will do it before our next class reconvenes here. thank you very much, professor. thank you, lawrence. coming up, the breaking corruption news of the night is that new jersey senator robert menendez is facing another superseding indictment, this time for bribery invite involving the government of qatar, after another bribery scandal involving the government of egypt. that s next. th government of egypt. that s next. that s next. not caused by a heart valve problem, we re going for a better treatment than warfarin. eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke risk. and has less major bleeding. over 97% of eliquis patients did not experience a stroke. don t stop taking eliquis without talking to your doctor as this may increase your risk of stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don t take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking, you may bruise more