- This episode of
LegalEagle was made possible by Skill Share. Learn to think like a lawyer
for free for two months by clicking on the link
in the description. Various corners of the
internet have suggested that President Trump is somehow eligible to run for a third term as President. - I'd be for a third
term in heartbeat, yeah. - If we could put him on
another third term, we got him. - Pundits have jumped in, and even the President
himself has suggested that he might be eligible to get more than eight years in office. - And then do you want to
really drive them crazy? Go to #thirdterm #fourthterm. You'll drive them totally crazy. - On multiple occasions. - And if things keep
going like they're going, we'll go and we'll do what we have to do. We'll do a three and four and a five. - Of course, we all
learned in grade school that President's are limited to two terms. But is there a clever way
around it, through, perhaps, impeachment or an end run
around the vice presidency? Well, I took a deep dive into this just because I was curious,
and also terrified. So you don't have to. So stick around and let's
figure out if there's a way to get more than eight years
in office as President. (grand orchestral music) Hey, LegalEagles, it's time
to think like a lawyer, because Jerry Falwell, Jr.
suggested that President Trump should add two years to his
presidency to make up for the indignity of the Mueller
investigation, tweeting, "After the best week ever
for @realDonaldTrummp - "no obstruction, no collusion,
New York Time admits "Barack Obama did spy on his campaign, "and the economy is soaring. "I now support reparations -
Trump should have two years "added to his first term
as pay back for time stolen "by this corrupt failed coup." Adding fuel to the fire, President Trump has sometimes speculated on whether he could seek a third term. - Under the normal rules,
I'll be out in 2024. So we may have to go for an extra term. - Now, the 22nd Amendment
limits a President to two terms in office. But other President's have also mentioned serving a little bit longer. During his second term in 1987, Ronald Reagan said maybe
there should be a movement to repeal to the 22nd Amendment. And the grandiosity is not
limited to Republicans. Barack Obama said that he
thought he could be elected a third time if he was eligible to run. And all this poses the question, can a President serve more
than eight years in office? Now, to answer this question we have to go all the way back to the Revolutionary War. The framers seriously
considered making the office of presidency a lifetime appointment. And although they didn't
go through with this plan, they were still reluctant to limit the President's time in office. As a result, there were no term limits in the version of the Constitution that was ratified in 1788. The final version of the
Constitution ratified by the states made the office of President
a four year position. The Constitution also granted
the office of Vice President who would be the President's successor in the event the President
could no longer serve. Of course, at the time
the Constitution specified that the person who finished second in the Presidential election
would win the vice presidency, which was a terrible idea that
had horrible repercussions that I'll probably cover in another video. Now, George Washington was the only man ever seriously considered for the first President of the United States. Everyone assumed he
would win in a landslide. And he did twice. This is probably why many
people would have been happy to make Washington President for life. Or an elected king. Luckily, Washington was not
okay serving as President for life, so when he ran
he privately assured people that he wouldn't even serve
a full four-year term. And he confided in Alexander Hamilton that he thought he would
only serve for two years and get everything straightened
out and then retire early. Though Washington did
run for President twice and was elected twice,
he decided to retire after the end of his second term. This move set a precedent
that lasted 150 years. Washington's retirement
established a custom that President's followed
until the 20th Century when Franklin Delano Roosevelt
was elected four times. This is why customs
and laws are different. A custom is defined as a traditional and widely accepted way of
behaving or doing something that is specific to a particular
society, place, or time. A custom is an accepted norm
that cannot be enforced by law. By contrast, laws, as you know, are systems of rules enacted
by a governing authority which can enforce them through penalties. And although most President's
followed Washington's custom of quitting after two terms, some of them tried for a third term. Ulysses S. Grant ran for
a third term in 1880, but lost to James Garfield
in the Republican primary. Grover Cleveland wanted a third term, but nobody wanted him. Now, Teddy Roosevelt
served as Vice President for James McKinley and
became President in 1902 after McKinley was assassinated. Now, T. Dog was re-elected in 1904 and served a full four-year term. But in 1912 he ran for a
third non-consecutive term, this time as nominee of
the Progressive Party. But he lost to Woodrow Wilson. Wilson himself sought a third term, but the Democratic Party
declined to nominate him. Enter Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Franklin Roosevelt is the only
person elected for President for more than two terms. He succeeded in getting a third term because he was President during a time of unprecedented crisis for America, both the Great Depression,
and World War II. - I will, with God's help, continue to serve with
the best of my ability and with the fullness of my strength. - Of course, the rest is history. Roosevelt was elected to
a fourth term in 1944, shattering the two term custom. At the same time, in Great
Britain the war also prompted a crisis of leadership. In 1940, Britain amended
its Parliament Act, which had permitted a general
election every five years. Parliament instead opted to
extend Winston Churchill's government for five more years. Although the war was Roosevelt's
primary justification for serving four terms, not everyone was okay
with this development. Members of Congress had been
proposing term limit motions for 140 years, and they continued to do so during Roosevelt's time in office. Roosevelt was in office
from 1933 until 1945. Roosevelt died in office just 11 weeks into his fourth term, at which term Vice President
Harry Truman became President. In 1947, Congress passed
the 22nd Amendment which limited the President to two four-year terms in office. If was finally ratified
by the states in 1951. Now, the 22nd Amendment reads "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." So the 22nd Amendment says
a person can only be elected to be President two times
for a total of eight years. A person can serve for
a maximum of 10 years in the case of a President
who is ascended to the position as a Vice President. That means it's theoretically possible for a President to serve more
than eight years in office. And a funny thing actually
happened while Congress and the states were ratifying
the 22nd Amendment limiting the number of years a person
can serve as President. In fact, President Truman tried
to win a third term in 1952. The amendment didn't apply to him, since he was President
when the rule was passed, because the second clause
in the 22nd Amendment reads "But this Article shall
not apply to any person "holding the office of
President when this Article "was proposed by Congress,
and shall not prevent "any person who may be holding
the office of President "or acting as President
during the term within "which this Article becomes
operative from holding "the office of President
or acting as President "during the remainder of such term." So that gave Truman the
green light to run again. But Truman dropped his bid when he lost the New Hampshire primary. But, of course, because you're
watching this video right now this amendment did not settle
the debate over term limits. And Truman wasn't the last President to consider a third term. So the question is what
happens if a President dies, resigns, or is impeached? The 22nd Amendment has
a provision covering what happens if the Vice
President is forced to take over. If a Vice President takes over
because the President dies, is forced to resign, or is impeached, then serves less than two years, then the person may serve
for two terms as President. So for example, if
Donald Trump were to die between now and January of 2021, which seems unlikely given that
he's the paragon of health, then Mike Pence could take
over and run for two terms as President serving out
roughly nine years as President. But if the President dies within two years of getting the office, like FDR, who died within 11 weeks
of getting his fourth term, then the person who becomes
President can only serve out the remaining portion
of that President's term and seek re-election once. This would have been the situation for Vice President Gerald Ford, who stepped in after President Nixon resigned in 1973. Ford was only eligible
to be re-elected once. He pardoned Richard Nixon, and lost the 1976
election to Jimmy Carter. And if you read the text
of the 22nd Amendment, it seems to have some open questions. For example, does it only prevent consecutive four year terms? Can a person serve two terms, return to private life, and
then come back for a third? Well, the answer is no. A President cannot run for a third term after skipping a term. The amendment does actually
count the years served, not concurrent terms. President Obama, for example,
has already served two terms, and eight years. He cannot run for two
more consecutive terms later in his life, or even one more term later in his life. Now, some of President Trump's supports have suggested that since he was impeached by the House, but not
convicted in the Senate, he's eligible to run for two more terms. The reasoning seems to
be that impeachment, even without removal from office, nullifies his first term in office. So what impact, if any,
does the impeachment process have on a person's ability
to serve more than two terms? Well, the constitutional
mechanism for impeachment of a federal officer,
including a President, is set forth by Article II,
Section 4 of the Constitution, which reads, "the
President, Vice President, "and all civil officers
of the United States "shall be removed from
office on impeachment for, "and conviction of treason, bribery, "and other high crimes and misdemeanors." The House did in fact
impeach President Trump. Don't listen to anyone that says President Trump was not impeached. He was. But the Senate did not
vote to convict and remove. Now, the Constitution
in Article I, Section 3 says that the political
consequences of impeachment "shall not extend further
than to removal of office, "and disqualification to
hold and enjoy any office "of honor, trust or profit
under the United States." This means that if a President
is impeached and removed his or her removal is the only political consequence that they face. Now, the person may still
face criminal charges, but that's not a political issue. Although, President
Trump and his supporters have argued that impeachment nullifies an election's results, this
is definitely not the case. The only political
consequence of impeachment are removal and disqualification, which we'll get to in a minute. Impeachment doesn't operate to somehow give the impeached person
more time in office. So President Trump's time
in office is not nullified, and he's still bound
by the 22nd Amendment. But what would happen if a President was impeached and removed? Could he or she run for a third term then? Well, the text of Article
I, Section 3 seems to imply that impeachment and conviction
disqualifies a person from running for a high office later on in their post-impeachment life. Section 3 says that in
addition to removal, the only political
consequence of conviction is "disqualification to
hold and enjoy any office "of honor, trust, or profit
under the United States." In 2015, the Congressional
Research Service explained that the Senate would
need to vote separately on whether a person is
disqualified from future office in conjunction with the
impeachment trial, stating, "although removal from
office would appear to flow "automatically from conviction
on an article of impeachment, "a separate vote is necessary
should the Senate deem it "appropriate to disqualify
the individual convicted "from holding future federal
offices of public trust. "Approval of such a measure
requires only the support "of a simple majority." The report concluded that even if a person is removed from federal office, they may still hold another high office, even President, if voters elect them. The Senate has used
this procedure to decide whether other federal
office holders, like judges, should be barred from
future federal offices. If applied in the Presidential context, the Senate could vote by
majority to disqualify a convicted President from future office. There's an additional
wrinkle to disqualification. The Constitution isn't clear
on which public offices are those of "honor, trust, or profit." You might conclude that
offices of Senator, Representative, or
President are such offices. Or you can conclude exactly the opposite. This has not been settled, or even tested. The Congressional Research Office is not necessarily the final word. That would be with the
Supreme Court presumably. And maybe this section of
the Constitution merely means a person is disqualified
for federal offices, but is free to run for state office. But the bottom line is this. If the Senate convicts the
President and doesn't hold the crucial follow-up
vote on disqualification, that person is free to
run for another office. This may include the presidency, but only if the person has
not served two full terms. Then that's all well and
good about the presidency. But maybe the vice
presidency is an end run around the 22nd Amendment. So the first question
is do Vice President's even have term limits? The answer is actually no. Vice President's are not
subjected to term limits. They are treated the same
as members of Congress, who also have no limits on
how long they can serve. Now, Mike Pence might
never become President. But let's say he serves
out eight full years with President Trump,
and then audible shudder, Ivanka Trump becomes President in 2024. Could Mike Pence then serve
as her Vice President? The answer is yes. If Mike Pence wants to
become a kind of permanent Vice President President sitter, there's nothing in the Constitution that would prevent this scenario. In fact, this has actually happened twice. George Clinton. No, not that George Clinton,
and not that Parliament. It was George Clinton,
who was the Vice President for both Thomas Jefferson
and James Madison. Similarly, John C. Calhoun
served as under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. So we know that Vice President's can serve more or less indefinitely. But there's one hypothetical
that certain parts of the internet have really glommed onto. There might be one
actual way to get around the limitations of the 22nd Amendment. That involves the office
of vice presidency. It might be possible for an ex-President to become Vice President and actually get more time in office than
they normally would. But the first question is, can an ex-President even
serve as Vice President? The answer is yes. This seems like the last
thing any ex-President would actually want to do. But a President is not barred from later deciding to be the Vice President. No former President has ever volunteered to be Vice President, but there's nothing in the Constitution that would stop it. So given that a former
President can actually be Vice President, one way
to potentially get around the 22nd Amendment would
be for the President to step down after their second full term, to then serve as someone
else's Vice President, and then for that President to step down, or resign, or be
impeached, or to just die. At that point the Vice
President would then attain the office of presidency. So in that situation, the
President turned Vice President, turned President again wouldn't be elected to the office of
President more than twice. But they would be able
to serve out more than the mere eight years. And if you couple that
with becoming President after starting out as Vice President, that could be 10 years already, you could add almost four
years on top of that. But hopefully that
situation never happens. It's a constitutional ambiguity, and hopefully we won't
have to deal with that. But I, for one, don't
understand why any President would want to run for a third term, because being President is temporary. But being a YouTube star is forever. Any idiot can be President, but it takes more than
being a stable genius to be on YouTube. And if you want to start
your own YouTube channel, I'd recommend Sorelle
Amore's Skill Share class, YouTube Success Build an Authentic Channel That's Worth the Follow. Sorelle shares her favorite
tips and techniques for building up a
devoted online following, using examples from her own past content and other creators she loves. And remember, YouTubers are not limited to two terms of four years
each by the 22nd Amendment. Skill Share is an online
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all free for two months. Improve yourself now so you're not limited to just being the President
of the United States. So do you agree with my analysis? Leave your objections in the comments, and check out my other
real law reviews over here where I talk about all of
the legal issues of the days, like Devin Nunes's lawsuits
and Presidential impeachment. Just click on this playlist, and I'll see you in court.
Didn't expect that last loophole. I'm certain a former President becoming Vice President would be challenged in court though.
It is an obviously loophole, you could do the VP DEAD PRESIDENT thing indefinitely and not strictly violate the wording of the amendment. Mind you that would obviously be subject to legal challenge. But given how the American Courts work the outcome of such a challenge would be a political one not a legal one.
The US has really stopped having 'legal laws' they're more just 'political laws' now. 💁♀️😂