That's true. There was a policy decision made not to attempt to try and convict more than a million people but to provide a general amnesty instead. A million people who also did not, by and large, contest the claim they had participated in an insurrection. But the policy decision with this insurrection WAS to attempt to try and convict people. And while the political climate back then would never have tolerated it, there is a perfectly reasonable and very strong case to be made that trying to apply that provision of the 14th amendment without a conviction is itself a violation of the 5th amendment. The ability to run for federal office is not a privilege granted by the government. It is afforded to every citizen (every natural-born citizen, in the case of the Presidency), with certain age and residency pre-reqs. I do not know that I would characterize it as a right, per se, but the freedom to do so is most certainly a liberty afforded to US citizens. I have seen it claimed that the 14th amendment is self-executing. That's rampant nonsense. Nothing in the Constitution executes itself, not even the one part which absolutely should, the 10th amendment. Certainly if a clause about rebellion and insurrection were self-executing, there wouldn't been any point to 18 USC 2383.