Can a former president such as bill clinton run for vice president?
The 12th amendment (“But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”) says no. This also rules out people not born in U.S. and anyone under the age of 35.
It’s an open question of constitutional law hinging on whether Amendment XXII (“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.”) triggers Amendment XII ineligibility (“But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”) or whether Amendment XII ineligibility refers only to Article II.1.5’s eligibility requirements (“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.”). To simplify, it hinges on whether “eligible” means “electable.”
We’ve had a few threads on this in the past, which I know you can’t search for as a guest; Could Bill Clinton Run As Vice President? includes links to many more. Doper Marley23 says that Clinton himself reads the Constitution to prohibit a term as Vice President, which I agree with - while a term as Vice President (“eligibility” emaning only Article II eligibility) is textually defensible, I don’t think any Supreme Court (not just the Roberts Court) would be willing to allow this as a backdoor into a third term.
Not just the Roberts Court?
On the other hand, Jimmy Carter could, in principle, serve fifteen Vice Presidencies in a row. He only had one term as President, so he’s unambiguously still eligible, and there’s no limit to how long you can be veep, so long as you remain eligible for the Presidency.
This is assuming, of course, that he lived long enough, and that at least eight presidents wanted him as their running mate.
Just a nitpick, but the requirement is “natural-born citizen” not “born in the US.” A person born in the US is a natural-born citizen, of course, but so is a person born to American parents overseas.
I don’t think JC has 60 more years in him, unless he really is 90 foot tall Jimmy Carter from that SNL skit.
Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, on a recent talk show, explained that she was excluded from the usual line of succession to the presidency because she was Czech-born.
So, Bill Clinton could conceivably serve as Sec. of State, but would be excluded from succession because he was elected twice and served 2 full terms.
Sorry, I was sort of in the stream of consciousness there. I meant to say that regardless of the composition of the court, I doubt they would construe the Constitution to allow the OP’s scenario. I wanted to specify that I wasn’t just saying that it was a partisan decision the Roberts Court would make.
Sorry for any confusion.
Maybe he and Bush41 can alternate.