Can a President Still Be President After Being Impeached

As talk of impeachment flooded the net in September 2019, we came across two rumors concerning the bear on of the impeachment process on President Donald Trump'southward reelection opportunities.

The showtime held that a president who was impeached by the Firm, but not bedevilled by the Senate, could run for office two more times because the failed impeachment would nullify the first term. The 2d posited that if the House votes to impeach a president, simply the Senate doesn't convict and remove the person from office, the president is barred from running for office again.

We'll accept a look at each of those theories beneath. Merely first, a quick look at how the impeachment process works. People often utilise the word "impeachment" when referring to the removal of a president from function. But that's not exactly how information technology works. The House of Representatives has the "sole Power of Impeachment," equally stated in Article I, Department 2, Clause v of the U.S. Constitution. But information technology is up to the Senate to captive and remove a president from part. In this way, "impeachment" is roughly akin to bringing formal charges against an individual. Information technology is so up to the Senate to captive the individual on those charges.

The same theories both bargain with the gray expanse between impeachment and confidence. In other words, what happens if the president is impeached by the Firm of Representatives simply is non convicted past the Senate?

Theory 1: If a president is impeached by the House just not bedevilled by the Senate, the offset presidential term is nullified and the president may run for ballot two more times.

FALSE: This theory has been posited by a few social media users, but it reached a larger audition when information technology was shared past pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec:

The tweet reads: "These Democrats don't realize that if they impeach Trump and the Senate doesn't confirm information technology then it nullifies Trump's first term and he gets to run two more times. Read the Constitution, people."

This is non how impeachment works.

Earlier we become to what the Constitution says nearly impeachment, nosotros tin can become a glimpse of the hypothetical scenario posited in this tweet by taking a quick look at our country's recent history.

President Neb Clinton was impeached past the House of Representatives on December. 19, 1998. All the same, Clinton was not bedevilled by the Senate. Nosotros searched news reports from the time and found no serious reporters, historians, or politicians arguing that the Senate'southward failure to convict Clinton literally nullified the president'southward previous term and gave him the opportunity to run for function again.

The Associated Press reported on February. 12, 1999:

The Senate today acquitted William Jefferson Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice, ending a thirteen-month drama that catapulted an matter with a White House intern into only the second presidential impeachment trial in history. Permitted to finish his term, the 42nd president declared he was "profoundly sorry … for what I said and did."

"This can be and this must be a time of reconciliation and renewal for America," Clinton said in a cursory statement from the White House Rose Garden about two hours after the celebrated verdict.

Main Justice William Rehnquist pronounced Clinton'south acquittal at 12:39 EST. "It is therefore ordered and adjudged that the said William Jefferson Clinton exist and he hereby is acquitted of the charges in the said articles," he intoned.

The process for impeachment is laid out in Commodity I and Article II of the U.S. Constitution. This text says null most a president'due south term existence "nullified" past an impeachment proceeding. Furthermore, the 22nd amendment of the Constitution explicitly states that "no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice."

Doug Pennington, managing director of advice for the Constitutional Accountability Center, told usa in an email that Posobiec's argument was imitation:

The 22d Amendment lonely unequivocally disproves that ridiculous, dangerous claim. The first words of the Amendment land: "No person shall exist elected to the office of the President more than twice …." Donald Trump has been elected once. Provided he isn't convicted by the Senate in an impeachment trial and disqualified from holding futurity role, he can run for a second term, and only a second term.

That's enough to negate that dreadful tweet, but anyone who considered some version of that question in good organized religion would accept looked anywhere — literally anywhere — in the Constitution for textual back up for the belief that if "[1] they impeach Trump and [two] the Senate doesn't confirm it then [three] information technology nullifies Trump'southward commencement term and [4] he gets to run ii more times." Having establish absolutely none, instead coming across Article I Section iii and the 22d Amendment, among other sections, such a skilful-faith questioner would have concluded that the opposite is true, and would not have made such a claim publicly for fear of spreading disinformation.

Theory 2: A president is barred from seeking a second term one time impeached.

More often than not FALSE: A number of social media users seem to be nether the impression that Trump would not be able to seek reelection if the Business firm of Representatives impeaches him. One Twitter user, for instance, wrote: "If he gets impeached he won't be able to run in the adjacent election like he plans to. It would guarantee that we can't have four more years under his leadership."

But that isn't the example. A president who is impeached by the House but is not convicted by the Senate could notwithstanding run for reelection.

Pennington told us: "Nothing in the Constitution's language on impeachment prevents a president impeached but not convicted from running for a second of a two-term maximum."

In fact, before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appear an official impeachment inquiry into Trump in September 2019, political pundits noted that a "failed" impeachment could assist Trump's reelection efforts.

An stance slice in The Hill noted:

If the Autonomous majority in the House impeaches the president without broad political consensus in the Senate (and state) to convict the president and remove him from role, impeachment will be weaponized past the president in the 2022 campaign. Trump volition argue that liberal Democrats and the news media are out to get him, that he has washed naught incorrect, and that you lot can't impeach a president who has done a great job. This mantra will play well with his loyal base of operations.

All the same, a scrap of truth is offered here. The Constitution explains the country has two penalties for impeachment: removal from office and disqualification "to hold and enjoy any Office of accolade, Trust or Profit under the United States." If a president is impeached past the Business firm of Representatives, the Senate could convict, remove the president from function, and disqualify the person from holding future office.

This scenario, still, falls into some gray surface area considering it has never been tested at the presidential level. It is possible that the Senate could take two separate votes, one on removal from part and one on disqualification from hereafter office, which could event in a president'south removal from office just provide an opportunity to seek reelection. Information technology'southward also theoretically possible that a president who has been impeached, convicted, removed, and disqualified, could seek office at a lower level of authorities.

We asked Pennington about the possibility of a president seeking reelection after the House has impeached and the Senate bedevilled the person. He told us:

 A bedevilled president can be prohibited from over again holding officeif the Senate so decides, per Article I Section three, which includes: "Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Part, and disqualification to hold and relish any Office of award, Trust or Turn a profit under the Usa: but the Party bedevilled shall nevertheless be liable and bailiwick to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law." Disqualification is not automatic, only upwardly to the Senate's discretion.

While unsettled, a strong argument exists, all the same, that members of Congress are non encompassed by the language "Office of honor, Trust or Profit nether the Usa." If so, then perhaps an impeached president could run for the House or Senate. It's untested.

Additionally, some argue (at fn. 23) that an impeached and convicted official who the Senate decided to disqualify from holding future office, per Article 1 Section 3 higher up, wouldnot be butterfingers from holding a state office. Again, untested.

More than confident proverb that a Senate disqualifying a president from property office after an impeachment conviction would at to the lowest degree prohibit him/her from belongings a federal office in either the executive or judicial branches, and at least peradventure congressional or state part.

To sum up: Although a president is impeached by the House of Representatives, the repercussions of this legal process don't come to fruition until the Senate votes to convict the president.

If that happens, the Senate tin vote to remove the president from office and disqualify the person from property time to come role. If the Senate does not convict, the president will non be removed from office, nor volition the person exist prevented from seeking reelection (if he/she has not already reached the 2-term limit).

Nowhere in the Constitution, however, does information technology land that a failed impeachment process would "nullify" a presidential term and allow a president to seek extra time in role.

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Source: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/failed-impeachment-nullify-term/

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