30 Comments
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Allen Easley's avatar

Gabe, as a longtime law professor and recently retired law school Dean, I just want to say that what you have done here is quite impressive. You have dug deep into an issue involving the complex interactions between two different amendments to the Constitution, and you did so with great clarity. I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about this issue since Trump first suggested the possibility of a third term and your work on this is really top notch. Thank you for putting in the effort.

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Carolann Najarian's avatar

With all the nightmare problems we are confronting in barely three months of this administration I don’t want to spend one

bit of my bandwidth thinking about whether Trump could run for a third term. Please- let’s stick to the here and now as you usually do. It’s just too much to bear.

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Barbara Fox's avatar

Honestly, this issue is not on my radar right now considering all the damage being done NOW by Trump, Fox News and congressional republicans and purely evil men like Steve Bannon ( just one of many) I am hoping Saturday Night Live has fodder for the next four years in order to humiliate theses folks. I loved the photo of Kristi with her hair extensions down to her proverbial ass holding her AK …what a joke.

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flora obrien's avatar

If Trump can serve a 3rd term, so could President Obama using the same work around.

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Mark Mansour's avatar

The Constitution requires a lot of fixing. There are holes and ambiguities everywhere you look.

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DerekF's avatar

This is a terrifying article!

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DCLawyer68's avatar

There's really very little doubt that the bar against eligiblity to be President keeps someone who has served twice from becoming Vice President, which means that those routes are closed, nor being "chosen" i.e. "elected by the House. Being Speaker when the President and Vice President both die/resign is probably not foreclosed BUT there's a strong constitutional argument that the succession statute itself is inconstitutional in this regard.

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Kevin Vineyard's avatar

My only critique is the phrase "serve a third term" is playing fast and loose with the definition of "serve" when it comes to Trump.

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Linda Mahle's avatar

I cannot imagine who would be willing to have Trump as a vice-presidential running mate. It sounds like a death sentence.

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Simon Kinahan's avatar

This is click bait garbage. Seriously disappointed.

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Gabe Fleisher's avatar

Hi Simon, I’m sorry you felt this way. That’s genuinely not the spirit it was written in --this is an idea President Trump has floated on several occasions, so it felt worthwhile to take a look at whether it would actually be possible, and if so, how he would try to go about doing it. I also think the idea brings up the larger point at the end — about constitutional “interstices” and the need to address some of these loopholes before it’s too late — which I certainly don’t think is clickbait, but actually an important group of issues for our system to address! But I respect if you disagree, thanks for reading.

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Melvin J Brewer's avatar

Non compos mentis

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Wendy🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🌈's avatar

It’s gonna require an amendment , we pushed a scathing analysis about it https://thistleandmoss.com/p/trumps-third-term-a-fucking-figment

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Pat's avatar

Gabe, this was a wonderful, clear, easy to understand analysis, with historical insights. I absolutely delighted in reading it and appreciate all the research you must have done.  Thank you!! It's excellent.

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Pat's avatar

Gabe, this was a wonderful, clear, easy to understand analysis, with historical insights. Thank you. I absolutely delighted in reading it and appreciate all the effort you must have put in. It's excellent.

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Pat's avatar

Gabe, this was a wonderful, clear, easy to understand analysis, with historical insights. Thank you. I absolutely delighted in reading it and appreciate all the effort you must have put in. It's excellent.

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TERESA's avatar

This was a very interesting article. There are several parts of the Constitution that need to be revised for sure.

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