if HRC wins the nomination could Bill be nominated VP???

[kybob]

seems like the VP choice is usually one of the runnerups. is this in stone somewhere. i was just wondering. imagine a former President as VP, might be a step down for him, but such a team might have huge impact on government.

[ShortnFiery]

1. Oh Brother, another Aristocracy - call the Queen to Preside over the swearing in?

[LostinVA]

2. No, because he can't be President

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

9. I'm not sure that that's correct . . .

Having been elected to the Presidency twice, Bill Clinton is, of course, precluded by the 22nd Amendment from being elected President a third time. (Specifically, the amendment provides, as relevant here, that "o person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice . . . . ").

At the same time, it is hardly clear that the 22nd Amendment works to render Bill Clinton "constitutionally ineligible TO the office of President" within the meaning of the 12th Amendment, which, in relevant part, provides that ""o person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States." Certainly, at the time of the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, the phrase "constitutionally ineligible to the office of President" could NOT have been referring to the status of having been ELECTED twice to the office, insofar as the prohibition set forth in the 22nd Amendment wouldn't be enacted until some 147 years later.

Rather, the phrase "constitutionally ineligible to the office of President" presumably refers to the language of Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution, which specifies, in pertinent part, that "o person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be ELIGIBLE TO the Office of President; neither shall any Person be ELIGIBLE TO that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

Had the framers of the 22nd Amendment meant to render "constitutionally ineligible" to the office of the Presidency any person who had twice been elected President, they could have easily said so. They did not. By its plain terms, the 22nd Amendment merely prohibits such a person from being ELECTED President a third time.

Thus, in short, my reading of these constitutional provisions is that Bill Clinton remains constitutionally eligible TO the office, and thus is not precluded by the 12th Amendment from being elected Vice President (and subsequently assuming the office as President by operation of Article II, Section 1, Clause 6).

[skipos]

3. No, but one of the twins could be VP!!!

BUSHS AND CLINTONS 4EVER!

[jobycom]

6. They would be too young. nt

[skipos]

13. Ah shit, you are right. Neil Bush then?

Could the rest of the Bush and Clinton families can make up the cabinet, or are there age restrictions there too?

[jobycom]

15. No age restrictions on the cabinet, just on president and VP.

If the people want to vote for two Bushes or two Clintons on a ticket, they have that right. I won't discriminate against a candidate just because of his or her name or family.

My own feeling is that if just did away with the unAmerican, undemocratic term limits on the presidency, we could just elect the Clinton we want and be done with it. For that matter, we'd have had him in office for the past six years. If Americans want to vote that way, they should be allowed to. They should have the right to.

[Gman]

4. Yes he could

and could even fill an unexpired term of the president but could not run for president after the unexpired term was up.

[jobycom]

5. Much legal debate over this.

The Constitution requires that a VP must be qualified to be president. (Part of Amendment XII: But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.)

Amendment 22 says "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once."

Some intepret this to mean that Bill couldn't be President, since he used up his electability, others say he could still be VP since the 22nd amendment doesn't disqualify him form becoming president, only being elected president. No idea how it would come out in court. Dick Cheney, you may recall, was a resident of the same state as Bush when he was elected VP, and that meant the electors from that state could not be counted, according to the Constitution. The Supreme Court waived that rule for Cheney, though. (Cheney moved his residence to Wyoming to try to circumvent the law, but he still qualified as a resident of Texas.)

[Milo_Bloom]

7. NO, but not necessarily why people keep saying

Everyone keeps saying that Clinton CAN'T BE PRESIDENT... technically that isn't true. Read the amdendment

"No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once"

ELECTED to the office... It doesn't say he can't SERVE, it says he can't be ELECTED PRESIDENT. So if a previous president becomes speaker of the house and circumstances put him/her in the presidential seat, they can serve, they just can't be "elected."

It is generally thought that this means that a previous president can't "SERVE", but it just isn't what the amdendment says and to my knowledge, this has never been challenged in court, so unless it happens, we don't know.

However, there is a residency restriction in the constitution, stating that electors cannot vote for a President and Vice-President from the same state, so, unless Bill is able to change his state of residency to one other than the one where his wife lives (that would be difficult to prove and probably struck down by a court if he did), he cannot be vice president when she is president.

[Eugene]

8. President and VP must come from different states.

That might be a problem.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

10. That is not correct . . .

The Constitution does not require that the President and Vice President be from different states. Rather, the 12th Amendment specifies that the "Electors shall . . . vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves . . . ."

What this means is that, assuming that Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton were both deemed to be from the State of New York -- that is, Bill Clinton did not switch his state residency the way Dick Cheney did at the last minute in 2000 -- then the Electors from New York would be prohibited by casting their ballots for Hillary and Bill Clinton. This wouldn't prove to be a practical problem if a Hillary/Bill ticket had won enough electoral votes that Bill Clinton didn't need New York's 31 electoral votes in order to get the 270 votes required for him to be elected Vice President.

[RC]

11. The ones we have now both came from Texas.

But then they ain't Dems.

[rock]

12. Bill would be willing to make the sacrifice

I'm sure.

[Conscious Confucius]

14. Yes, he could serve up to two years of an unfinished presidential term.

A person may serve a maximum 10 years as president. Two elected terms and under two years. Which is why Johnson could have run a second term. Hypothetically, if Bill were to replace Hillary for more than two years, then the Speaker would take the gig with Bill remaining as VP.

[ArkySue]

16. No

For one thing, the Pres and Veep can't be from the same state and they are both NY residents. Then there is the whole 2 term President is not eligible to be President again.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

17. You need to read the replies on this thread . . .

1. A President and a Vice President most assuredly CAN be from the same state.

2. It is hardly clearly that Bill Clinton's having been elected President twice renders him "constitutionally ineligible TO the office" of the Presidency within the meaning of the 12th Amendment.

[SteppingRazor]

20. Actually, they can't be from the same state

Amendment 12 -- "The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate"


On edit: There's also the very last line of the 12th amendment, which clearly states: "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

Bill Clinton is certainly constitutionally ineligible, having served two terms as president.


On double edit: OK, I've read all of your posts elsewhere in the thread, and see you've already provided rebuttals. Points taken. However, all your points prove is that there are two sides to this argument, which means that the constitutionality of a Bill Clinton V-P would be thrown to the SCOTUS. And do the Democrats really want their V-P choice to set up a constitutional crisis in the middle of an election? I'm guessing no. So, even if you're correct (and, for the record, I don't think you are, since the Constitution is looked at as a complete document in SCOTUS decisions, so the "but the 12th came before the 22nd" argument probably wouldn't fly), a Clinton pick for V-P would almost definitely be avoided.

[Ninja Jordan]

18. Wow, this was worth a thread?

[Orangepeel]

19. No. There is debate, but the Supreme Court would never allow it.

There is some debate on the issue.

Although it is clear that Bill can't be elected to a third term, some people argue that he could be elected VP and complete the term of the elected President should it be necessary (because of the particular way the VP amendment is worded). A person elected VP *can* complete part of the term of a president who is removed from office and then run for their own two terms (Johnson could have but chose not to). Theoretically, Bill could be doing the same thing, but backward.

However, if it were tried (which it wouldn't be), it would certainly be challenged in court and SCOTUS would never allow it (IMO). I believe that the left leaning judges would tend to think that the idea goes against the spirit of the 22nd Amendment and the so called "strict constructionists" wouldn't allow it because it would be Clinton.

edited because I should proof-read

[beaconess]

21. Exactly

Because the language is ambiguous, the Court would look to the intention of the drafters of the amendment - which was clearly to keep people from serving term after term, not to keep them from merely being elected.

[Ignacio Upton]

22. No

Aside from the fact that he wouldn't be able to become President again in the line of succession, they also live together in the same state. Having two people from the same state on the ticket is unconstitutional. In 2000, Cheney had to change his residence from Texas to Wyoming in order to get around that.

[Infinite Hope]

23. Yes he can and he could assume the presidency as well for up to 2 years.

Read the Constitution, people. Up to 10 years, a person can serve as President.