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US Constitutional Question

IanBertram

Well-known member
Published by SLP
Location
UK
As I understand it, if the President dies in office, the VP succeeds to the Presidency. If he then serves in that way for more than 365 days, he can only stand in his own right for one more term, rather than the normal two.

If the sitting President is reelected but dies between the election and the swearing in ceremony, the VP will step forward. This period will be less than 365 days. I assume also that as VP-elect, he would then also take on the next full term. My question:

What period of time counts towards the constitutional limitation on the number of terms the VP can stand? Is it the unexpired period of the first term, or is it that period plus the 4 years of the second term? It seems to me that it would be the second, but given this is US Constitutional law, who knows?

As a supplementary question, if the VP argued the first case how would it be resolved? I'm guessing SCOTUS, but how would any decision be enforced if the VP was to make a stand?
 
As I understand it, if the President dies in office, the VP succeeds to the Presidency. If he then serves in that way for more than 365 days, he can only stand in his own right for one more term, rather than the normal two.

If the sitting President is reelected but dies between the election and the swearing in ceremony, the VP will step forward. This period will be less than 365 days. I assume also that as VP-elect, he would then also take on the next full term. My question:

What period of time counts towards the constitutional limitation on the number of terms the VP can stand? Is it the unexpired period of the first term, or is it that period plus the 4 years of the second term? It seems to me that it would be the second, but given this is US Constitutional law, who knows?

As a supplementary question, if the VP argued the first case how would it be resolved? I'm guessing SCOTUS, but how would any decision be enforced if the VP was to make a stand?
IIRC terms count if and only if you're President for most of them.
 
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 President more than once.

It's not one year, it is two years, and the clock starts on the 22nd Amendment's limitations when that person takes office as president, or acts as president. So for the present administration, if at any time before January 20, 2023 Kamala Harris succeeded Joe Biden as President, or began acting as president in the event of his incapacitation, would count as preventing her from being elected president more than once, as she'd (presumably) serve more than two years. Any time after that, it would not.
 
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 President more than once.

It's not one year, it is two years, and the clock starts on the 22nd Amendment's limitations when that person takes office as president, or acts as president. So for the present administration, if at any time before January 20, 2023 Kamala Harris succeeded Joe Biden as President, or began acting as president in the event of his incapacitation, would count as preventing her from being elected president more than once, as she'd (presumably) serve more than two years. Any time after that, it would not.
Black comedy of refusing to replace the brain dead president on the operating table as someone counts down the minutes until its exactly one year, 364 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds left of the term.
 
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 President more than once.
Yes, of course, two years. I don't know where the idea it was one came from.

Black comedy of refusing to replace the brain dead president on the operating table as someone counts down the minutes until its exactly one year, 364 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds left of the term.

Which brings us to the 25th Amendment I think and potentially close to recent politics!
 
Black comedy of refusing to replace the brain dead president on the operating table as someone counts down the minutes until its exactly one year, 364 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds left of the term.
It’s rumored that some thing not unlike this happened with Nevada Senator Key Pittman; the rumor, which is false, states that Pittman died before his 1940 re-election, but local Democrats kept his body in a bathtub full of ice so that he would not be legally considered dead until after the election, when the governor could appoint a replacement.
 
Interesting possibilities can occur if the 1872 electoral vote precedent are followed. In that election the Democratic candidate died after the election but before the electoral votes were cast. Some electoral votes were still cast for him after his death but they were discarded during the count due to his ineligibility to be President. However, in this case, unlike in 1872, the votes being discarded would be for the winner of the vote. The House would have to hold a contingent election to decide between other eligible candidates, which in all likelihood means that whoever comes in second place would become President.

In other words, on inauguration day the President would be sworn in for another term as Vice President and the new President would be the one chosen by contingent election.
 
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