...Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the Quran? Forget Obama. Raise that man from the dead and re-elect him. I can't imagine the 22nd Amendment applies to the undead.Update: Dan has conducted some legislative interpretation on his own and has come to the conclusion that the 22nd Amendment "probably applies to dead people." Dan: "It all depends on the definition of 'person.' The amendment reads, "No person...". It doesn't read, "No living person," now does it?" Thanks Dan. Duly noted.
3 comments:
Forgive me for being more of a law dork than usual. I was going to make the point that, even if you interpret 'person' to exclude the dead, then the corpse of Mr. Jefferson (whom I would gladly support for re-reelection) probably does not meet the original Constitutional requirements for the presidency. But let's examine Article II, shall we?
"The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:..."
"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States."
This language does not, on its face, appear to exclude non-persons from being elected to serve as US Presidents. In fact, non-persons are not even subjected to the 35 year or 14 year restrictions. It only seems to require that the President be a 'he'. Can we elect a puppy President? Where in the Constitution is that illegal?
First rule of statutory interpretation: read the entire statute!
Amend. XII: ". . . . The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President . . . and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. . . ." (emphasis added).
:-)
Nice blog, Alvaro.
-Brian
Umm... is this the Chris I think it is??
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