Why Can a Convicted Felon Run for U.S. President?

State laws can prevent people convicted of crimes from voting, so why do federal laws let them run for president? Learn why it's actually a good thing, and when people can be barred from federal office, in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://people.howstuffworks.com/criminal-conviction-bar-running-for-president.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren
Voleebaum Here. In all but four states and territories in
the US, having been convicted of a felony means that
you can lose your right to vote in federal and
local elections, sometimes until you're out of prison, sometimes until

(00:23):
you complete your full sentence, including parole or probation, and
sometimes forever. The laws that governed voting are decided by
each state, but national laws say that a convicted felon
can run for the highest office in the country, as
is evidenced by Donald Trump's campaign following his conviction on
thirty four felony counts. So how can this be? The

(00:49):
framers of the Constitution made it really hard to disqualify
anyone from becoming president, and that's meant to be a
good thing. Okay, let's talk about federal laws. Federal laws
and the consequences for breaking them are written by Congress,
but even Congress doesn't have the final word. A federal

(01:09):
law that's been on the books can still be struck
down by the Supreme Court if it's found to be
in violation of the Constitution, and it's the Constitution an
Article two, Section one, Clause five, specifically that clearly lays
out the qualifications for the presidency. No person except a
natural born citizen or a citizen of the United States

(01:31):
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 have not
attained to the age of thirty five years and been
fourteen years resident within the United States. So if Congress
wanted to write a law that adds qualifications or disqualifications

(01:53):
for federal office, it would be practically impossible. As we've
talked about before in our episode about why the age
limit is thirty five for the article. This episode is
based on how Stuffworks spoke back in twenty twenty two
with Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of
Iowa College of Law. He said, there's a pretty robust

(02:14):
understanding of law that says Congress cannot add qualifications for
federal office. You can imagine as a practical matter why
that would be a problem. Congress could pass a statute
that disqualifies its political enemies or makes it more difficult
for its disfavored candidates to win. Even if a federal
law says that violators will be disqualified from holding office.

(02:37):
It could be challenged in court, and odds are very
good that the Supreme Court justices would strike down the
disqualification part as unconstitutional and let the person run for
office again. There is, however, a previously little known clause
in the Constitution that disqualifies people from office who have
committed one specific crime, insurrection. It comes in Section three

(03:02):
of the fourteenth Amendment, and it's really worthy, so I'm
not going to read it in full, but it says
that if you've previously taken an oath of office to
support the US government, and then you engaged in insurrection
or rebellion against the US government or gave aid or
comfort to its enemies, then you cannot hold office again
unless Congress puts it to a vote and two thirds

(03:24):
of both houses vote that you can. Muller said, that's
the only other place in the Constitution that says this
is prohibited conduct, and we don't want individuals serving in
government who have assisted in some sort of rebellion. The
Fourteenth Amendment was written in the wake of the Civil War,

(03:45):
when Congress wanted to prevent any officials who served in
the Confederacy from holding federal or state office again unless
Congress specifically and broadly approved of them. This disqualification clause
of the fourteenth Amendment was collecting dust until the January sixth,
twenty twenty attack on the Capital and accusations that former

(04:05):
President Trump incited the insurrection. But what exactly would it
take for Trump or another government official who had previously
taken an oath to be disqualified from office under the
fourteenth Amendment. There's a lot of debate. Does the individual
need to be convicted of inciting or supporting a rebellion?

(04:26):
Does Congress have to pass a separate enabling statuette that
identifies the individuals who participated in the insurrection or rebellion.
There are even people who question whether the disqualification applies
to the presidency at all. Muller added that the framers
of the Constitution consciously set a very low bar of

(04:47):
entry for running for office. Unlike European aristocracies, American officeholders
didn't have to own land or be wealthy. That's the
beauty of American style democracy, and it goes for those
convicted of felonies and other crimes. In the nineteen twenty
presidential election, the outspoken socialist Eugene Debs campaigned for president

(05:10):
from a federal prison in Georgia. Adebs was charged and
convicted of sedition in nineteen eighteen for his fiery speeches
denouncing America's participation in World War One. Running as convict
number nine sixty five three, Debs won three point five
percent of the vote in nineteen twenty. More recently, the

(05:30):
fringe politician Lyndon LaRouche ran for president three times in
the nineteen nineties and early two thousands after serving seven
years at a federal prison for defrauding the irs. But okay,
just about anybody can run for political office in America.
But is there a difference between running and winning? If

(05:51):
a criminal or suspected trader is elected to office, are
there other ways to remove them or disqualify them from
running again? Ya impeachment being the big one. According to
the Constitution, Congress has the authority to launch impeachment proceedings
against all civil officers of the United States. If a
majority of the House votes to impeach, that's followed by

(06:13):
a trial in the Senate. If the Senate votes to
convict the official of treason, bribery or other high crimes
and misdemeanors, the person is removed from office. Only twenty
civil officers have ever been impeached, fifteen federal judges, three presidents,
a cabinet secretary, and a US senator. Only eight of

(06:34):
this group, all federal judges, were convicted and removed from
office by the Senate. Disqualification from future office is an
optional punishment with impeachment. In its history, the Senate has
only barred three people from serving again in the federal government, again,
all federal judges. There's a cheap joke in here somewhere

(06:55):
about how all politicians are criminals anyway, But of course
who we elect to represent us and our government is
very serious. It's a good thing that our laws don't
place many restrictions on who can run for office. After all,
we the people should decide who should be in office
with our vote. It's up to us to look at

(07:16):
candidates earnestly and fully and decide whether their behavior represents
us and whether it should bar them from office. Today's
episode is based on the article does a criminal conviction
bar you from running for US President? On HowStuffWorks dot Com,
written by Dave Ruse brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio

(07:38):
in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by
Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app,
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