i decided to read the u.s. constitution before tackling any more of fed courts, because it is generally a good idea to do so, and i came across something interesting, but unrelated to fed courts.
22nd amendment, u.s. constitution, section 1: "no person shall be elected to the office of president more than twice..."
i italicied "elected," because i want to point out the difference in language in article II: "no person except a natural born citizen... shall be eligible for the office of president." this means - in no way shape or form may anyone born in a foreign country become president of the united states. if you were born in say... uh... austria... you're done.
there is one other way you can end up being president of the united states: if the president dies, resigns, or is removed and you happen to be vice-president. in that case, you assume the office of president. i don't see anything preventing a two-term president being able to be elected vice-president.
i guess the closest thing to that is the 12th amendment, which says: "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of the vice-president of the united states."
it is clear that foreign born folks are completely and totally ineligible to become president or vice-president. you're negged. done. over.
but the word i'm poring over is "elected" and also the fact that the 22nd amendment was written after the 12th amendment and of course, article II. if the folks who wrote the 22nd amendment really wanted to preclude people from assuming the presidency in no uncertain terms, shouldn't they have used the language in article II, like "you're not eligible to be president if you served to terms already"?
ineligibility is absolute. but being elected president is only one of the ways you can be president.
is there a loophole in the constitution?
because how i read it... clinton can run for vice-president, and then the president can resign, and clinton would be president. and there would be nothing barring him from being president, because he wouldn't have been elected to that office.
or... if jeb runs for president and dubya for vp... and NO! too scary! must go to bed!
okay, someone figure this out for me. it's 5:30am. yeah i'm a dork, and this has nothing to do with fed courts.
2 comments:
well, if the operating language here is *elected* then good old dubya should be good for another run then.
another four years in addition to the four additional we hve to endure ... definitely scary!
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