Should some groups be ineligible for political office?

Well, should they? And should different restrictions apply at different levels?

I’d suggest:

Ministers of a religion - they hold themselves to a Higher power.
Currently serving prisoners, and those on parole. Basically, they haven’t served their time.
Hi, Opal!
Currently serving soldiers - political activism being contrary to military effectiveness.
The legal profession (lawyers, barristers, solicitors, judges, policemen) - as they’re in charge of implementing the law, they have a conflict of interest.

Who else?

I’m pretty sure that most ministers (excepting Sharpton and Jackson) don’t run anyway, and that also smacks of a religious test. I’m not saying it is, but it sounds like one.

How effectively could they campaign anyway?

I don’t think currently serving soldiers are allowed to do much of anything but be in the military in any case.

Policemen are not part of the legal profession. As for the rest, well over a third (160-odd) of Congress said that they had been in law before elected office, and I think that interpreting laws makes them more qualified to judge the need for and efficacy of new laws.

Overall, I think that the only people restricting political office should be the voters, judging based on character and positions rather than profession, which seems to be what you’re using.

On this one, I vehemently disagree with you. I’m a hard atheist who is fanatically devoted to the separation of church and state, but come on! The fact that you have a religious faith to a deep enough degree that you become a minister should mean that you can’t serve your country? Why?

Possibly, but the democratic process would keep something like 99.99% of them out anyway, so why bother?

Agree. It wouldn’t matter much when we’re talking about a fulltime political career as that would mean leaving the military anyway, but I wouldn’t want anyone in political office have military officers telling him what to do, or be sent off to fight in a distant land.

Wherein lies the conflict of interest? As a sidenote, I’d love to see more policemen go into politics. People who know what reality actually looks like are worth their weight in gold.

Forgot to add: why bother with a bunch of restrictions? Are these perceived conflicts of interest so important as to override the will of the voters? Isn’t the very idea of democracy to let the voters decide?

We bar certain groups all the time – e.g. noncitizens, the illiterate, people under certain age. But we tread lightly on exclusions.

From the OP, various countries already constitutionally exclude active clergy and active military from political office. However, many of those countries, which include a number in Latin America, do so because of a history of military takeovers or a state-established religion interfering with the civil estates, and thus it’s more a reactive proposition. In other countries where there is a well-established tradition of military men waiting until past retirement to enter politics, or of clear separation of church and state, there is not as much urgency to enshrine that constitutionally, and it is regulated by law or internal rules.

In the USA, military law and regulation strictly limits the political activities of an active servicemember, including not campaigning while in uniform; plus, the laws prevent anyone from simultaneously holding two full-time offices in the government so anyway they have to quit the one job to take the other. It is eminently sensible that for the sake of the principle of civilian supremacy, as well as to maintain the good order and discipline, the roles of active partisan politician and active soldier be kept compartmentalized. So this in effect already happens.

At least for one group of clergy (Catholic Priests) Pope John Paul II officially discouraged running for office and had many quit their elected posts; many denominations do restrict the ability of clergy in positions of authority to assume a political office.

But, why bar ordained clergy from political office? Doesn’t ANYONE who is a believer in a religion “hold himself to a greater power”? What would a minister ordained, in, say, the Assemblies of God, do in an elected office that an active, committed, lifelong lay member of an Assemblies church would not do?

Felons in prison and on parole are barred from voting in most states, BUT for many offices there is no prohibition on a convict still serving being ELECTED; and conviction and incarceration of an office holder does not necessarily void the office but in many cases person has to then be expelled/impeached/recalled through the proper channels. Marion Barry notwhitstanding, it is not the norm for a convicted felon to recover from political disgrace to the point of retaking his office.

The OP mixes a bit of elements under the “legal” field:
Policemen, for instance, are civil servants, so there should be no more problem in their running for office than would a teacher or a firefighter. Again, most modern western nations stipulate in their laws that one cannot hold simultaneously two Public Offices, be they political or civil service, so naturally they’d have to take leave of their duty in order to campaign and serve, and rightly so. But as Priceguy said, how could it be bad to have someone in city Hall or in the Legislature who knows what the street is like? Again, how is the policeman’s POV any different from, say, the ambulance crew that has to deal with many of the same incidents?

Judges and the members of the Public Prosecution, AGAIN, are themselves in a Public Office already so the same restrictions about quitting the one job to take the other would apply; in the USA, a great many judges and District Attorneys of all levels from municipal magistrate to State Supreme justice to State Attorney General are elected, and run campaigns and elections ANYWAY. In other state courts and in the Federal courts Judges are appointed and hold their office for a fixed time independent of elections, or for life, depending on the jurisdiction, and the Prosecutors are appointed by the executive power either for a fixed time or at the pleasure of the executive. The *appointed * judges/prosecutors are in most cases barred from launching any political campaign while in office, so conflict avoided.

As to lawyers in general, I see no reason to bar them from political office; at least no more than bankers, farmers, or any other guild that could stand to profit from passage of legislation. The appearance of conflict has to be handled on a day-to-day, case-by-case, person-by-person basis and the mere fact that an attorney may be voting on a judiciary issue does not make it more of a conflict than if a homeowner is voting on a property tax issue.

re: prisoners

Usually this occurs in town-level politics when someone who’s already held public office (and has built up a following and a campaign staff) before being jailed, then goes on to win the next election on the strength of his reputation (and the work of his staff) despite not being able to campaign for himself.

So what? The laity of most religions are, ideally, supposed to do the same.

A legislature with no lawyers in it would be incompetent. Think about it.

If you’re going to ban judges from political office, it makes just as much sense to ban politicians from becoming judges. Sorry about that, William Howard Taft (President), Earl Warren (Governor), William Rehnquist (Assistant Attorney General) and John Roberts (Deputy Solicitor General) – none of you can be Chief Justice.

I’m curious. Is there actually a specific literacy requirement for political office in American jurisdictions? Or are you saying that by default it just wouldn’t be possible for an illiterate person to be elected?

James Garfield was an ordained minister of the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ. He resigned his Eldership before he took office (which he hadn’t done for any lower offices he’d held). Unfortunately, he was assassinated about four months later, but the nation did knowingly elect a man of the cloth once.

Eisenhower retired from the military specifically to run for the Presidency. Is it law or tradition that the Commander-in-Chief be a civilian?

The Constitution says that the President cannot simultaneously hold any other government job, which would include the military.

I didn’t say that they couldn’t have legal training. I was suggesting that those who actively practice law should be excluded from making it.

You would then have to bar followers of religions also. For another thing, some religions have a lay ministry (LDS, JW to name two). It also implies that faithful members of religions shouldn’t serve their country in the military.

Agreed.

You are incorrect that political activism is contrary to military effectiveness, at least insofar as it applies to the US Armed Forces. You would also have problems with a number of legislators currently serving in the various legislatures, including Congress. Said members are currently serving also in the Guard or Reserves.

Why? You’re aware of at least one office that it behooves the office-holder to be a lawyer, I trust.

Bobby Sands, and IRA member and leader of the Republican hunger strike in the Maze prison, was elected to the British parliament. A law was passed soon after, to prevent prisoners from being nominated for election.

In my state Constitution: “No person shall be a member of the Legislative Assembly unless a citizen of the United States, and able to read and write either the English or Spanish language; furthermore no person shall be a member of the House of Representatives who has not reached 25 years of age, or of the Senate who has not reached 30 years of age, on the date of assuming the office.”

Remember, the OP does itself recognize the different levels of jurisdiction. My comment likewise is not intended to be universal.

Who, aside from people who are actually psychotic, DOESN’T know what reality looks like?

Eugene V. Debs ran for President of the United States while serving a federal prison sentence in 1920. His “crime” was to oppose American involvement in World War I.

This is an extreme example, but it illustrates the danger of blanket proscriptions saying that classes of individuals can’t run for office. The ability of prisoners to run for office is a safeguard against politically motivated prosecutions.

Among lesser office holders, James M. Curley was elected an Alderman in Boston while serving time, and later served a federal sentence while holding office as Mayor.

Is this a joke that I’m not getting, or did you sincerely not understand what I meant?

I’m amazed that people can run and win while in prison.
Or that the dead can be elected.

Ministers: do you mean ordained or acting? Because there’s some churches Over There that ordain any male in the group. And many people who aren’t ordained but who hold themselves to a higher power; many of the non-ordained make your average minister/priest/rabbi sound almost atheistic (my mother can’t be ordained, being a Catholic, but she considers Ratzi suspiciously liberal).

Prisoners: Spanish law includes “inhabilitation from public office” (which includes both elected office and government jobs) as a possible penalty in many cases. It is separate from fines and prison.

Soldiers: depends. A general as Minister of Defense sounds fine to me! As Minister of, say, the Environment or of Education, I’d be more surprised.

Lawyers: uhm, are you counting “judge” as being “office”? This last point makes me think you need to rethink your definitions.