Q: Given some of the rhetoric out there, can a person actually become Ppesident of the United States for life?
R. W., Leisure World (Seal Beach)
A: The 22nd Amendment of the United States Constitution, Section 1, sets forth quite clearly: “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 the president more than once.”
Thus, under the 22nd Amendment, the notion that someone could legally become “president for life” is unrealistic. Congress would have to pass legislation, signed by the president, if not push a constitutional amendment, or repeal the 22nd Amendment all together, for anyone to serve indefinitely.
This is not to suggest the limitations of the 22nd Amendment are without controversy. There has been effort to change the amendment. Indeed, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to four terms, but this was an aberration, a consequence of the Great Depression followed by World War II.
Terms limits are included in the 22nd Amendment to protect against possible tyranny. Thus, argument that repealing or modifying the 22nd Amendment is needed should be given particularly careful analysis and thought.
Q: What are the qualifications to be able to run for president of the United States?
M.R., San Clemente
A: After considerable debate, the framers of the United States Constitution settled on just three qualifications for the office of the presidency. They are set forth in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5, of the Constitution: “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…
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