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Arguments that since the law removed office-holding disqualifications “from all persons whomsoever” meant it applies to future legislators were misplaced, according to Heytens.

Myers wrote that the 1872 law that removed office-holding disqualifications “from all persons whomsoever” — save for those who served in two specific legislative sessions — “demonstrates that the disability set forth in Section 3 can apply to no current member of Congress.”

The Amnesty Act of 1872 did just that when it declared that “all political disabilities imposed by the third section” of the 14th amendment were “hereby removed from all persons whomsoever.”

It stated that this disqualification was “hereby removed from all persons whomsoever,” save for a list of specific exceptions.

Congress did just that, he said, with the Amnesty Act of 1872 that declared, that “all political disabilities imposed by the third section” of the 14th amendment were “hereby removed from all persons whomsoever.”