# Can a current prisoner become President of the USA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 20, 2012, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-current-prisoner-become-president-of-the-usa/628845 "2012-07-20T13:06:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-current-prisoner-become-president-of-the-usa/628845/41 "2012-12-14T20:02:48Z")
OK, thanks; I feel better now. I couldn’t believe I could be _ **that** _ far off. Nemo, I agree, that’s pretty funny. But then the strict States Rights folks I’ve come into contact with were not especially deep thinkers. They were more the reactionary type. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-current-prisoner-become-president-of-the-usa/628845/42 "2012-12-15T17:16:18Z")
Obama screwed up his presidential oath. Enough that it was administered a second time in a private room somewhere a second time. What was up with that? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-current-prisoner-become-president-of-the-usa/628845/43 "2012-12-15T20:43:01Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Obama screwed up his presidential oath. Enough that it was administered a second time in a private room somewhere a second time. No, Chief Justice Roberts [screwed it up](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=274_VdeckAU), because he decided to memorize it rather than read it. They did it a second time later just so nobody could make a silly argument about Obama not having done the oath correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-current-prisoner-become-president-of-the-usa/628845/44 "2012-12-15T21:09:42Z")
And it wasn’t in a private room; it was in the Map Room at the White House with staff and reporters present: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/21/AR2009012103685.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/21/AR2009012103685.html) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-current-prisoner-become-president-of-the-usa/628845/45 "2012-12-15T21:16:42Z")
As to the perverse “states rights” interpretation giving the President a pardon power even as to state offenses, I don’t buy it, either. Every reference to the “United States” in the Constitution is clearly to the nation as a whole, not to the states individually. Certainly many people before the Civil War thought of the Union as a much looser polity, but no credible legal scholar that I know of has ever suggested that the President may pardon state offenses, and no President - and we’ve had some with very sweeping views of their powers - has ever asserted such a view. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-current-prisoner-become-president-of-the-usa/628845.md?page=2)