# Does impeachment bar being elected again / re-election? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-impeachment-bar-being-elected-again-re-election/842045 "2019-10-20T18:30:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-impeachment-bar-being-elected-again-re-election/842045/21 "2019-10-24T01:38:42Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > And I learned it like this. Can I ask where you learned this and what the teachers’ qualifications as Constitutional Law scholars were? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-impeachment-bar-being-elected-again-re-election/842045/22 "2019-10-24T03:16:29Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Can I ask where you learned this and what the teachers’ qualifications as Constitutional Law scholars were? High school civics ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-impeachment-bar-being-elected-again-re-election/842045/23 "2019-10-24T04:13:53Z")
Well, you can check this against the official definition of the Justice Department,[Officers of the United States Within the Meaning of the Appointments Clause](https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&client=firefox-b-1-d&sxsrf=ACYBGNQ_YhR640d-hZOHBWsyYa0VP60RDw%3A1571889747108&ei=UyKxXZ6ZBuKL_Qa21LCADg&q=Officers+of+the+United+States+Within+the+Meaning+of+the+Appointments+Clause&oq=Officers+of+the+United+States+Within+the+Meaning+of+the+Appointments+Clause&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0.573904.573904..574197...0.2..0.147.147.0j1......0....2j1..gws-wiz.......0i71.-tkl8-Mon-U&ved=0ahUKEwjejoLQgbTlAhXiRd8KHTYqDOAQ4dUDCAo&uact=5). That’s a pdf I can’t link directly to, but it’s the first hit on this Google search page. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-impeachment-bar-being-elected-again-re-election/842045/24 "2019-10-24T18:57:20Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Well, you can check this against the official definition of the Justice Department,[Officers of the United States Within the Meaning of the Appointments Clause](https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&client=firefox-b-1-d&sxsrf=ACYBGNQ_YhR640d-hZOHBWsyYa0VP60RDw%3A1571889747108&ei=UyKxXZ6ZBuKL_Qa21LCADg&q=Officers+of+the+United+States+Within+the+Meaning+of+the+Appointments+Clause&oq=Officers+of+the+United+States+Within+the+Meaning+of+the+Appointments+Clause&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0.573904.573904..574197...0.2..0.147.147.0j1......0....2j1..gws-wiz.......0i71.-tkl8-Mon-U&ved=0ahUKEwjejoLQgbTlAhXiRd8KHTYqDOAQ4dUDCAo&uact=5). That’s a pdf I can’t link directly to, but it’s the first hit on this Google search page. If that definition is exclusive than neither the President or Vice-President are officers since they are not appointed. If it is inclusive then there is nothing to stop adding congressmen, justices and judges as officers so I don’t really get the point of the citation. If you’re including it to justify the impeachment of Secretary Belknap, I didn’t realize that was an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-impeachment-bar-being-elected-again-re-election/842045/25 "2019-10-24T21:26:25Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > If that definition is exclusive than neither the President or Vice-President are officers since they are not appointed. I thought we were discussing the line of succession, as you were in responding to Northern Piper’s question. > [@](#): > > Originally Posted by Article II, Clause Six > In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. It assumes that the President and Vice President are _not available_. The status of the President and Vice President as officers or not is irrelevant. However, in such a case defining who in the line of succession is or isn’t an officer seems to be of extreme importance. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-impeachment-bar-being-elected-again-re-election/842045/26 "2019-10-24T23:43:13Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I thought we were discussing the line of succession, as you were in responding to Northern Piper’s question. My point was on which officers can be impeached and how it is applied to some officers but not others. Basically we have a situation where under the Constitution only executive officers can be impeached but then how can you consistantly apply it to officers in other branches (judicial) but not all of them (legislative). I think that under the precedent and after the debate the HoR had on Blount that legislative officers ARE impeachable but whats the point since each House can decide to remove a member on their own. So why would the HoR impeach a representative when it can just vote to have them removed, likewise the Senate and despite what we were taught in civics, it seems like according to the Senate’s own website that it’s not really sure that the Senate said a Senator can’t be impeached - just the Blount couldn’t be impeached but that may have been because he had already been expelled. No one is sure. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-impeachment-bar-being-elected-again-re-election/842045/27 "2019-10-25T03:22:12Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > despite what we were taught in civics I had several good teachers in high school, but I also have known to tell people in threads about language that everything their high school English teachers said about language was wrong. The same with civics. I was exceptionally fortunate to use a college textbook for AP American History (a short subject back when I was in high school), in which I learned that everything I had previously been taught about America was wrong. High school teachers can pound some basics into skulls, but they can’t do nuance. Nuance comes later, if at all. And the fact that there are 1.35 million lawyers in America proves that all of law is nuance because you can never get 1.35 million people to agree on anything. (Especially when their pay depends on not agreeing.) And constitutional law is 10 times worse because almost every interesting case has no precedent and no codified answer until five or more of nine particular lawyers get done disagreeing on every aspect of it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-impeachment-bar-being-elected-again-re-election/842045.md?page=1)