If a President Is Impeached His First Term Can He Still Run Again Two More Terms

As talk of impeachment flooded the cyberspace in September 2019, we came across two rumors concerning the touch of the impeachment procedure on President Donald Trump's reelection opportunities.

The first held that a president who was impeached past the House, merely non convicted by the Senate, could run for part ii more times because the failed impeachment would nullify the offset term. The 2nd posited that if the House votes to impeach a president, simply the Senate doesn't convict and remove the person from part, the president is barred from running for role once again.

We'll have a look at each of those theories below. But first, a quick expect at how the impeachment process works. People often employ the discussion "impeachment" when referring to the removal of a president from role. Only that's not exactly how information technology works. The House of Representatives has the "sole Power of Impeachment," equally stated in Commodity I, Department ii, Clause v of the U.S. Constitution. Just it is up to the Senate to convict and remove a president from role. In this way, "impeachment" is roughly alike to bringing formal charges against an individual. Information technology is then upward to the Senate to convict the individual on those charges.

The aforementioned theories both deal with the gray area betwixt impeachment and conviction. In other words, what happens if the president is impeached past the House of Representatives but is non convicted past the Senate?

Theory i: If a president is impeached by the House but not convicted past the Senate, the kickoff presidential term is nullified and the president may run for election two more times.

Faux: This theory has been posited by a few social media users, but it reached a larger audience when it was shared by pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec:

The tweet reads: "These Democrats don't realize that if they impeach Trump and the Senate doesn't confirm it and then it nullifies Trump's first term and he gets to run ii more times. Read the Constitution, people."

This is not how impeachment works.

Before we get to what the Constitution says about impeachment, we tin can get a glimpse of the hypothetical scenario posited in this tweet by taking a quick wait at our land'south recent history.

President Beak Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on Dec. 19, 1998. Yet, Clinton was not convicted by the Senate. We searched news reports from the time and found no serious reporters, historians, or politicians arguing that the Senate's failure to captive Clinton literally nullified the president's previous term and gave him the opportunity to run for office again.

The Associated Press reported on Feb. 12, 1999:

The Senate today acquitted William Jefferson Clinton of perjury and obstacle of justice, catastrophe a xiii-calendar month drama that catapulted an matter with a White House intern into merely the second presidential impeachment trial in history. Permitted to finish his term, the 42nd president declared he was "profoundly sorry … for what I said and did."

"This tin can exist and this must be a time of reconciliation and renewal for America," Clinton said in a brief argument from the White House Rose Garden almost two hours after the historic verdict.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist pronounced Clinton's amortization at 12:39 EST. "It is therefore ordered and adjudged that the said William Jefferson Clinton be and he hereby is acquitted of the charges in the said articles," he intoned.

The process for impeachment is laid out in Article I and Article II of the U.S. Constitution. This text says nothing near a president's term being "nullified" by an impeachment proceeding. Furthermore, the 22nd amendment of the Constitution explicitly states that "no person shall be elected to the office of the President more twice."

Doug Pennington, manager of communication for the Constitutional Accountability Center, told us in an electronic mail that Posobiec's argument was fake:

The 22d Amendment alone unequivocally disproves that ridiculous, dangerous claim. The start words of the Amendment land: "No person shall exist elected to the role of the President more than than twice …." Donald Trump has been elected once. Provided he isn't convicted by the Senate in an impeachment trial and butterfingers from holding future office, he tin can run for a second term, and merely a second term.

That's plenty to negate that dreadful tweet, but anyone who considered some version of that question in good religion would have looked anywhere — literally anywhere — in the Constitution for textual back up for the belief that if "[one] they impeach Trump and [2] the Senate doesn't confirm it then [three] it nullifies Trump's start term and [iv] he gets to run two more times." Having found absolutely none, instead coming across Article I Section 3 and the 22d Amendment, among other sections, such a expert-faith questioner would accept concluded that the opposite is true, and would not have fabricated such a claim publicly for fear of spreading disinformation.

Theory 2: A president is barred from seeking a 2nd term once impeached.

MOSTLY Fake: A number of social media users seem to exist nether the impression that Trump would non exist able to seek reelection if the House of Representatives impeaches him. One Twitter user, for case, wrote: "If he gets impeached he won't exist able to run in the next election similar he plans to. Information technology would guarantee that we can't have 4 more years nether his leadership."

Merely that isn't the case. A president who is impeached by the House merely is not bedevilled by the Senate could still run for reelection.

Pennington told united states of america: "Naught in the Constitution's language on impeachment prevents a president impeached only not bedevilled from running for a 2d of a two-term maximum."

In fact, before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an official impeachment inquiry into Trump in September 2019, political pundits noted that a "failed" impeachment could help Trump's reelection efforts.

An opinion piece in The Hill noted:

If the Democratic majority in the House impeaches the president without broad political consensus in the Senate (and country) to captive the president and remove him from office, impeachment volition be weaponized by the president in the 2020 entrada. Trump will contend that liberal Democrats and the news media are out to get him, that he has done nothing wrong, and that you lot can't impeach a president who has washed a keen job. This mantra will play well with his loyal base.

Yet, a flake of truth is offered here. The Constitution explains the country has two penalties for impeachment: removal from office and disqualification "to hold and enjoy whatsoever Function of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States." If a president is impeached by the House of Representatives, the Senate could captive, remove the president from part, and disqualify the person from belongings time to come function.

This scenario, however, falls into some grayness area considering it has never been tested at the presidential level. It is possible that the Senate could take ii dissever votes, one on removal from part and one on disqualification from future role, which could result in a president'southward removal from office just provide an opportunity to seek reelection. Information technology's also theoretically possible that a president who has been impeached, convicted, removed, and disqualified, could seek part at a lower level of government.

We asked Pennington about the possibility of a president seeking reelection after the Firm has impeached and the Senate convicted the person. He told us:

 A convicted president can be prohibited from again property officeif the Senate so decides, per Commodity I Section 3, which includes: "Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Function, and disqualification to hold and bask any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United states: but the Political party bedevilled shall nevertheless be liable and subject area to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Penalisation, according to Police force." Disqualification is not automatic, but upwardly to the Senate's discretion.

While unsettled, a stiff statement exists, nevertheless, that members of Congress are not encompassed past the linguistic communication "Function of accolade, Trust or Profit under the Us." If so, and so perhaps an impeached president could run for the House or Senate. It's untested.

Additionally, some argue (at fn. 23) that an impeached and convicted official who the Senate decided to disqualify from holding future function, per Article 1 Section 3 to a higher place, wouldnot be disqualified from belongings a state function. Again, untested.

More than confident saying that a Senate disqualifying a president from holding part after an impeachment conviction would at least prohibit him/her from holding a federal part in either the executive or judicial branches, and at least possibly congressional or state role.

To sum upward: Although a president is impeached past the House of Representatives, the repercussions of this legal process don't come to fruition until the Senate votes to convict the president.

If that happens, the Senate can vote to remove the president from part and disqualify the person from holding future office. If the Senate does not convict, the president will not be removed from role, nor will the person be prevented from seeking reelection (if he/she has non already reached the two-term limit).

Nowhere in the Constitution, however, does it country that a failed impeachment process would "nullify" a presidential term and allow a president to seek extra time in role.

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Source: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/failed-impeachment-nullify-term/