If I understand correctly, felons are not allowed to join the military. So what
happens if Trump is elected president? Will he be barred from acting as
Commander in Chief? Would the highest ranking general become the
Comander in Chief instead?
It begs the question of - is the Commander in Chief technically a member of the military, even if they can command it?
The President is not in the military. The military is under civilian control.
According to Wikipedia the Commander in Chief “…possessing ultimate authority, but no rank, maintaining a civilian status.”*
So it appears that a felon could hold the position of Commander in Chief without any issues.
*Source:
Trump is disqualified for the presidency due to having broken his first term oath of office (14th amendment article 3). However, in practice, it is up to the voters to read the Constitution, recall news reports related to January 6, and withhold their vote from a disqualified candidate.
I think this applies to any disqualification in event the candidate is as popular as Donald Trump.
If Congress is all-Democratic, his status as a felon would give a pretty bright green signal for impeaching and removing him for high crimes and misdemeanors - especially given that he was convicted for election crimes.
Any faithful interpretation of the Constitution would say that he can’t be the Commander-in-chief on that basis, but that’s only as a sub-part of being ineligible to hold the presidency itself.
Where in the Constitution does it say a felon can’t be president?
I take the word “shall” in Article II, section 4 to be an explicit command to anyone who has sworn an oath to the Constitution.
Legally, you can run for the office and attain the office, but you must immediately be impeached if you’ve committed relevant offenses. Your time is limited.
As far as I can see, there is no legal reason why Trump would not be allowed to be commander in chief, no matter how many crimes he may have committed. The Constitution gives extremely broad freedom to the president (in terms of having few restrictions on him once he has won the office.)
In many cities the police, fire department, dog catcher, and so on report to the mayor in one form or another. That doesn’t make the mayor a fire-fighting police dog catcher.
Or to think of it in a simpler way, consider your average good-sized organization with many different departments that all report to a CEO or director or some other ultimate boss. That person isn’t a member of those various departments, even though they all answer to that boss.
Similarly, qualifications for all of those different roles are not going to apply to the person in charge. The mayor doesn’t have to go through a police academy and a CEO almost surely doesn’t need years of experience in web design or an engineering degree to run a corporation.
The “shall” is referring to the consequences of impeachment by the House, and conviction by the Senate. Those are both political decisions. If the House doesn’t impeach, or the Senate doesn’t convict, the office-holder is not removed.
The use of “shall” doesn’t compel either chamber to take a particular decision; it makes removal from office the mandatory result of a impeachment followed by conviction.
In any case: the Constitution states explicitly the President is CinC of the Armed Forces ex officio, by virtue of being President. Not a matter of interpretation. He does not hold any rank or commission (Eisenhower had to resign his commission to be President then JFK & Congress reinstated it afterwards).
Right, the construction is that the Official shall be removed from office, upon impeachment and conviction; not that the Congress shall impeach and convict. Otherwise what would be the point of voting on it.
But won’t be able to get a job at 7-11, so we’ve got that going for us.
Even if there were a law passed that said that a felon can’t be President, it wouldn’t matter, because the Constitution lays out the qualifications for the Presidency, and no law short of an amendment can change that.
78-year-olds aren’t allowed to join the military.
Getting elected president isn’t joining the military.
Conversely, it’s only a law (or maybe military policy) that prevents felons from joining the military, and that could be changed if the issue mattered.
Same for this. Sure, making it legal for 78-year-olds to join would be a bad idea, but it could be done if the people in charge wanted to do it.
Does the POTUS have to pass a background check to obtain a security clearance? If so, there’s no way a person with 34 felonies can get a security clearance. Wouldn’t that be an issue?
No. The election is the background check.
Only until Trump unveils his new “Ban the Ballot Box” law.
Security clearances derive from the authority of the President, so it doesn’t make sense for the POTUS.