A verdict was handed down on Thursday in former President Donald Trump's hush-money case, finding him guilty of all 34 felony charges, making him the first president to be convicted of a felony.
Now the big questions for constitutional law scholars are: Can Trump still run for president? Can he hold office? If elected, would his sentence be suspended?
“This is one of those historic moments. This is a first, and we're just beginning to think about what the consequences of this are and what we should do in the future,” said Laurie Little, a law professor at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Law.
A felony conviction would prevent Trump from buying a gun, voting in many states or even serving in the military, but as Little explained, the conviction would not bar him from running for president.
“Legally, there is no barrier to him holding public office. The constitution sets out the minimum requirements — he just needs to be over 35 and a natural-born citizen,” he said.
Little added that there are no rules preventing the presumptive Republican nominee from seeking office again for two reasons: first, that a situation like this has never happened before.
“We're not prepared for that, that's one answer,” he said. “The other answer, the deeper answer, the legal answer, is this is a democracy, and the constitutional theory, the democratic theory, is that the people elect the president.”
Some have questioned whether the 14th Amendment to the Constitution would block Trump from running, but a recent Supreme Court ruling found that the amendment does not disqualify him from appearing on the ballot.
But Little said that doesn't mean lawyers and some states won't explore ways to get around the ruling.
“States do not have the authority to regulate federal elections. You could extrapolate from this ruling to say they can't stop him in the November 2024 election. But as I say, I think lawyers get paid to be creative and to push the law,” he said.
A guilty verdict against the former president is likely to set a precedent that will determine who can and cannot run in all future elections.
Assuming the conviction isn't overturned at some point, Little expects both Republican and Democratic lawmakers will introduce legislation to address the possibility of a conviction and its consequences for future nominees.
