felons and presidential candidacy

[James Maule]

If the convicted felon is in prison, then would the felon be permitted
to run, win, and then fall within the provisions dealing with persons
who are unable to serve? Or could the felon, having won, then issue a
self-pardon, exit the prison, and serve?

Or would the Electoral College be able to justify its continued
existence by demonstrating that it would be a last line of defense
against the election of a convicted felon serving in prison?

As bizarre as this sounds, with the advent of the Internet and the
rapidly occurring changes in electoral technology, it isn't
inconceivable that someone from Generation ZZZ ( several after X and Y
<G>) would attract many votes from others of a like mind in a nation
blessed/saddled with 6 "major" political parties!





Jim Maule
Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law
Villanova PA 19085
maule at law.villanova.edu
http://vls.law.vill.edu/prof/maule
President, TaxJEM Inc (computer assisted tax law instruction)
(www.taxjem.com)
Publisher, JEMBook Publishing Co. (www.jembook.com)
Owner/Developer, TaxCruncherPro (www.taxcruncherpro.com)
Maule Family Archivist & Genealogist (www.maulefamily.com)




>>> bryanw at TJSL.EDU 04/11/02 02:28PM >>>
Any such statute would be unconstitutional under Powell v. McCormack,
since
Congress cannot add or subtract to/from the constitutional
qualifications
for members of Congress, nor (by logical extension, I would think)
President.  Any "natural born citizen" (presumably meaning anyone who
has
been a U.S. citizen since birth) at least 35, who has resided in the US
for
14 years (not clear to me if that means immediately prior to assuming
office, or just some time(s) during his/her life), is eligible for the
Presidency.

Bryan Wildenthal, Thomas Jefferson School of Law

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Elliot Tenofsky [mailto:etenof at LINFIELD.EDU]
> Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 10:21 AM
> To: CONLAWPROF at listserv.ucla.edu
> Subject: felons and presidential candidacy
>
>
>         A student asked whether someone convicted of a felony
> may run for
> president.  Part of me remembers that there are federal statutes
that
> prohibit this, if the felony is federal, but I have no references or
> memory re state laws.  Can anyone help?  Thanks, Elliot.
>