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Vice President Bill Clinton? Take 3

Jack Shafer
Posted Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000, at 3:18 PM ET

Slate has contradicted itself. "History Lesson" says Bill Clinton can't run for vice president. "Explainer" says he can. What's the skinny?

The answer is: He can. The 12th Amendment states that anybody who is eligible for the presidency under Article II of the Constitution (a natural-born citizen age 35 or older) is eligible for the vice presidency. Clinton is a natural-born citizen over 35, so he qualifies. The putative roadblock to a Clinton vice presidency--the 22nd Amendment--doesn't apply. This hastily worded and passed amendment, designed to block another multi-multi-term presidency such as FDR's, only bars the election of a president to more than two terms in that office. It doesn't prevent a two-term president from running for the vice presidency.

The 25th Amendment affords Clinton another route to the vice presidency: In the event the vice presidency is vacated, the president appoints a new veep, subject to confirmation by Congress. (This is how Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller became vice president.)

Nothing in the Constitution would prevent Vice President Clinton from becoming president via succession. Finally, another scenario could return Clinton to the White House without a pit stop at the vice presidency. If both the presidency and the vice presidency were vacated and Bill Clinton were the speaker of the House, he would become president under the 1948 presidential succession act. (Next in line, the president pro tempore of the Senate and then the cabinet officers in the order specified by the act.)

Press Box thanks Yale Law School professor Akhil Reed Amar, American University Washington College of Law professor Jamin B. Raskin, George Washington University Law School professor Jeffrey Rosen, and Northern Illinois University professor of history David Kyvig.

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Jack Shafer is Slate's editor at large.
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Reader Comments from the Fray:


As a humble retired teacher of high school American Government I disagree with the learned folk who have contributed to the discussion of a Clinton Vice Presidency. In all the scenarios mentioned one fact is overlooked. A person elected to be VP must be able to be President. According to every interpretation of the 22nd amendment I have ever read there is a 10-year limit on the number of years a person can serve as President. If Clinton were to be elected VP the primary constitutional reason for the existence of that office, to assume the office of president in the event the president is unable to serve, is null and void. The most he could serve would be 2 years. A two year short termer is not what the framers intended. The 25th Amendment would prevent the Speaker of the House from being president in all but the simultaneous death of President and VP.

--Marlene Koerner

(To reply, click here.)


You must be 35 to be President. What if the President and VP are on a plane that crashes and they die? The Speaker of the House then assumes the presidency. But the Speaker is a member of the House, whose age limit is 25. What if I, at 27, win election to the House, and ascend to the Speaker when I'm 29, and the plane crash described above happens? Can I be President?

--Dan Isaacs

(To reply, click here.)


[Note from the Fray Editor: Yes, they're still arguing this one out in The Fray. Three articles were not enough, and if you thought that the input of distinguished Law and History Professors would be enough to settle the matter--well then, you don't know the Fray, buddy.]

(9/11)

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