Disqualification was constitutionally prescribed, but it was ultimately unnecessary if voters had simply declined to return Trump to the White House. Criminal proceedings against Trump may have continued in a lesser form if he had not retaken command of the Justice Department last year. By returning an anti-constitutional president to the White House, tens of millions of Americans failed to preserve their own democratic institutions and traditions. We saw how he conducted himself during his first term and what he promised to do if he won again. Dicta is a Latin legal term for the writing in a judicial opinion that is not part of the decision’s actual reasoning.