Vice-President Clinton?

[Craig Oren]

This question came up in 1964, believe it or not -- there was some
sentiment in the spring of 1964 for making Ike (that's Dwight David
Eisenhower, if you're too young to remember "I Like Ike"!) the Republican
Vice-Presidential candidate. I seem to recall that the consensus of
learned opinion was that this was not possible under the 22nd amendment,
but I agree that a prima facie case can be made to the contrary.


On Fri, 2 Jun 2000, DAVID E. BERNSTEIN wrote:

> I am forward a question from my colleague Todd Zywicki which members of
> this list may find of interest:
>
> Assuming they considered it politically and personally desirable, would
> it be legal for Al Gore to choose Bill Clinton as his running mate?  The
>
> plain language of the text is clear -- the 22nd Amendment says that no
> person shall be "elected to the office of President more than twice . .
> . ."  It says nothing about being "elected" Vice-President and it does
> not seem to prohibit being elected Vice-President and even succeeding to
>
> the Presidency in the event of a vacancy, although presumably one could
> not then stand for election in such a case.  Also there would seem to be
>
> no constitutional problem with a former President being elected, say,
> Speaker of the House and then succeeding to the White House in case of
> an absence of the President and VP.
>
> Is there any argument to believe that the plain language reading would
> be invalid?  I seem to recall an argument about why a VP could not
> preside over his own impeachment trial (plain language notwithstanding),
>
> but the policies advanced in that case do not seem relevant here.
>
> -Todd Zywicki
> GMU Law
>
>
> David E. Bernstein
> Associate Professor
> George Mason University
> School of Law
> 3401 N. Fairfax Drive
> Arlington, VA 22201
> (703) 993-8089
> dbernste at wpgate.gmu.edu
> <http://members.aol.com/deliotb/home.html>
>

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 Professor Craig N. Oren                    telephone *856-225-6365
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