As has been noted here already, earlier this month a Colorado District Court concluded that although Donald Trump engaged in the January 6 insurrection, he was not officer of the United States and so he was not covered by Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. The judge particularly cited a draft article by Kurt Lash about the legislative history of Section Three which argues that the presidency was either deliberately not covered, or at best that Section Three is ambiguous on this score.
Michael Stern has posted a lengthy analysis of this issue and of the legislative history that is definitely worth reading. Here is one paragraph beginning an analysis of the legislative history and especially of a statute drafted by Representative Samuel McKee:
The weight the court places on the fact that an early draft of section 3 explicitly lists the presidency and vice presidency also appears to be misplaced. A reader of the court's opinion would get the impression that a proposed amendment was introduced with those offices expressly included and then that proposal was modified to remove them. The actual drafting history of section 3 was more complex. . . .
