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An impeached and convicted Trump could still run in 2020. Here's how to stop him.
Opinions
An impeached and convicted Trump could still run in 2020. Here’s how to stop him.
By Frank O. Bowman III
November 6, 2019 at 11:37 a.m. EST
Frank O. Bowman III is a professor at the University of Missouri School of Law, visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center and author of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump.”
If President Trump were convicted by the Senate in an impeachment trial and removed from office, could he still run for president in 2020? The possibility is remote, but the candidacy of a former president Trump could happen unless the Senate takes steps to prevent it.
....
The question of whether Trump could nonetheless run for president next year is more complicated. In the impeachment of federal officials, the Senate has adopted the practice of holding a separate vote on the issue of disqualification from future federal office after it votes for conviction. Since at least the 1912 impeachment of Judge Robert Archbald, the Senate has required only a majority vote for disqualification.
If no disqualification vote is held, even a convicted official can reenter federal service. U.S. District Judge Alcee L. Hastings was removed from office in 1989 after he was impeached in the House for engaging in a “corrupt conspiracy” — soliciting a $150,000 bribe in a case before him — and convicted in the Senate. But the Senate took no vote on disqualification. In 1992, Hastings ran for and won a seat from Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he remains to this day.
If Trump were convicted by the Senate, but the Senate chose not to hold a disqualification vote, he could in theory run again, win and return to the White House. The path to reelection would also be open if a Senate vote favoring disqualification failed.
Of course, even an impeached, convicted and disqualified Trump could run for reelection, whether as a Republican or as a third-party candidate, in the sense of announcing his candidacy, tweeting madly and holding bellicose rallies. He might even be able to secure a ballot line in some primaries or in the general election. One can imagine ugly statewide quarrels between his die-hard loyalists and those insistent on enforcing the Constitution. Nonetheless, once disqualified by the Senate, Trump could never legally resume the office of president.
Given the current makeup of the Republican-controlled Senate, Trump’s conviction on articles of impeachment is unlikely. But if senators take that step, and don’t want to invite even more political chaos than the country has seen over the past three years, they should finish the job and disqualify Trump from ever holding federal office again.
An impeached and convicted Trump could still run in 2020. Here’s how to stop him.
By Frank O. Bowman III
November 6, 2019 at 11:37 a.m. EST
Frank O. Bowman III is a professor at the University of Missouri School of Law, visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center and author of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump.”
If President Trump were convicted by the Senate in an impeachment trial and removed from office, could he still run for president in 2020? The possibility is remote, but the candidacy of a former president Trump could happen unless the Senate takes steps to prevent it.
....
The question of whether Trump could nonetheless run for president next year is more complicated. In the impeachment of federal officials, the Senate has adopted the practice of holding a separate vote on the issue of disqualification from future federal office after it votes for conviction. Since at least the 1912 impeachment of Judge Robert Archbald, the Senate has required only a majority vote for disqualification.
If no disqualification vote is held, even a convicted official can reenter federal service. U.S. District Judge Alcee L. Hastings was removed from office in 1989 after he was impeached in the House for engaging in a “corrupt conspiracy” — soliciting a $150,000 bribe in a case before him — and convicted in the Senate. But the Senate took no vote on disqualification. In 1992, Hastings ran for and won a seat from Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he remains to this day.
If Trump were convicted by the Senate, but the Senate chose not to hold a disqualification vote, he could in theory run again, win and return to the White House. The path to reelection would also be open if a Senate vote favoring disqualification failed.
Of course, even an impeached, convicted and disqualified Trump could run for reelection, whether as a Republican or as a third-party candidate, in the sense of announcing his candidacy, tweeting madly and holding bellicose rallies. He might even be able to secure a ballot line in some primaries or in the general election. One can imagine ugly statewide quarrels between his die-hard loyalists and those insistent on enforcing the Constitution. Nonetheless, once disqualified by the Senate, Trump could never legally resume the office of president.
Given the current makeup of the Republican-controlled Senate, Trump’s conviction on articles of impeachment is unlikely. But if senators take that step, and don’t want to invite even more political chaos than the country has seen over the past three years, they should finish the job and disqualify Trump from ever holding federal office again.
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