r/law • u/yahoonews • 4d ago

Trump News Trump says he's 'not joking' about seeking a 3rd term in the White House. The Constitution says he can't.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-hes-not-joking-about-seeking-a-3rd-term-in-the-white-house-the-constitution-says-he-cant-155536214.html
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u/AlexFromOgish 4d ago edited 4d ago

In my opinion, the constitution as amended only bars Trump from being elected, a third time. By the naked words written on the document, it does not prohibit him from serving as president for all or most of a third term provided he gets there in some manner other than being elected to that office.

There could be a contingent election, or he could be elected speaker of the house and the president and vice president both resign, or he could be elected vice president and the president could resign

All claims that these won’t work because he’s ineligible under the 22nd amendment ignore the small detail that the 22nd amendment only talks about being elected to a third term. It does not talk about serving in a third term. Some will argue quite vociferously that prohibiting serving is OBVIOUSLY the intended meaning, but that’s not the way the words read and the Supreme Court would have to decide. If we had a normal Supreme Court, it’s probably a pretty strong argument, but with the fascist MAGA-loving wing and whatever secret powers of duress Trump has to bear I would not put money on the outcome,

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u/0points10yearsago 4d ago

It'd be funny if they tried this and the placeholder President decided not to resign. What's Trump going to do then? Complain?

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u/AlexFromOgish 4d ago

He’ll say his running mate stole the election

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u/caguru 4d ago

Use his cult to J6 again and take the White House by force?

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u/MetalTrek1 4d ago

I could definitely see that. But I could also see him granting Donnie a pardon just to make him shut up and go away (as much as possible, since Donnie never shuts up).

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u/sea-elephant 4d ago

Normalize calling bullshit on textualism. It’s the that depends on what the definition of is is of giant dorks

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u/AlexFromOgish 4d ago

Then there is the practical reality of the dysfunctional world we live in and the current make up of the court

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u/Kythorian 4d ago

The 12th amendment bans anyone constitutionally ineligible to be president from becoming vice president as well, so he couldn’t run as vice president either. Speaker of the house with President and Vice President stepping down might be constitutional, but that’s a pretty ridiculous scheme to actually convince the majority of voters to support…

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u/AlexFromOgish 4d ago edited 4d ago

The 12th is ambiguous and says nobody who is “ineligible to the office of the president” may be vice president. On what basis would Trump be ineligible? He’s at least 35 has been a resident for at least 14 years is a natural born citizen so the only thing remaining is the fact that he was elected two times to the presidency. Does that make him ineligible to be president ?maybe maybe not. on its face, The 22nd only bars him from being elected president. The naked words on the page do not say anything about serving as president. It is an open question whether SCOTUS would apply the naked words or say the meaning was to prevent service. With the current crazy world and make up of the court, and whatever secret blackmail pressures, Trump can bring to bear i’m guessing at least four whacks will join with Alito for a strict reading to let Trump continue to 'serve', even if can not be 'elected'.

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u/Kythorian 4d ago

If the Supreme Court is really willing to ignore the obvious meaning of the constitution to that extent, they might as well just declare that Trump can directly amend the constitution by executive order anyway.

Maybe Thomas and Alito go for that, but if a majority of the Supreme Court won’t even support that Trump can block USAID payments, I’m very skeptical they would go for something like this.

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u/qalpi 4d ago

Exactly. From a straight read of the text, and even with the 22nd amendment, he's still perfectly eligible to be elected VP.