I have a question concerning the Presidency and The Constitution....

[Upthevibe]

Can an individual who was elected President for two terms, then run (at a later time) as a Vice Presidential candidate? This would mean that if anything happened to the President they would then become President for a third term? Would this be forbidden by the 22nd Amendment?

A friend and I were having a somewhat spirited, hypothetical conversation about this yesterday.

Thanks for your feedback!

[former9thward]

1. I am on the side they can be VP.

The 22nd says no person shall be elected to the presidency more than two times. If a person was elevated from VP to president, they would not be obtaining that office by election. I know there has been debate on the issue but I think the stronger side is that they can be VP.

[lastlib]

2. He would be ineligible to serve as president, therefore....

...could not hold the office of VP.

As to the specific mechanics of whether he could be listed on the ballot, who knows?

[WarGamer]

3. Dreaming about Obama back in service?? Me, too...

[Prairie_Seagull]

5. Hell I'd give up drinking and all forms of smoking to see this.

Ok, I'd give up drinking.

[Sneederbunk]

4. Depends upon the makeup of SCOTUS and who the candidate is.

[Upthevibe]

6. Sneederbunk ....

That entered my mind too. Would the SCOTUS end up having the final say? Why would it depend on who the candidate is?

I think my main question is would be constitutional?

[Irish_Dem]

7. The Supreme Court doesn't care about the US Constitution.

So the answer to your question is entirely up to a corrupt partisan SC.
They will do what benefits them the most.

[hlthe2b]

8. There is debate on this, but I go with Laurence Tribe and the 12th Amendment and say no.

The Twelfth Amendment says, “But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”

The 22th Amendment made any person twice elected as president, or once elected and who has served more than two years of another’s term, ineligible to be president. So as long as the former president was eligible to be elected in their own right, they could serve as Vice President. It should thus follow that a twice-elected, twice-serving President should NOT be eligible. The loophole some seek to grab onto is to try to differentiate between "elected" again to President versus ASCENDING to the office from the Vice Presidency. In the end, I guess it would depend on the whims of the then SCOTUS make-up and ideology.

[Upthevibe]

9. hlthe2b......

Thanks for your input.....I think very highly of Laurence Tribe....