Elizabeth Wydra, president of the progressive Constitutional Accountability Center, says it is a mistake to assume the legal system will stand in Trump's way.

"Nothing prevents him from running for president and being elected, even if he is in jail at the time of the election," she said.

Incidentally, the law is not so generous to voters, she noted.

"Having a felony on your record can prevent you from voting for president in some states," Wydra said.

How can the Constitution lack such a good-conduct clause?

Historians say the eminent figures who wrote the Constitution put their trust in electors to choose the president.

They did not foresee a disreputable character ever winning the allegiance of these electors, who were typically property-owning white men like them. Alexander Hamilton, who helped devise the electoral-college system, expressed confidence that it would bring forth "characters preeminent for ability and virtue" who would win the "esteem and confidence of the whole Union."

Within a few decades, that system was gradually replaced by one in which the voters decide state-by-state on the slates of electors who are pledged to one candidate.

Doesn't the 14th Amendment disqualify candidates who "engaged in insurrection?"

Yes, but Trump was not charged with insurrection after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

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