Secretary of State is #4, and that didn’t stop Madeline Albright from holding that position during the Clinton years. I believe the accepted solution is that the succession just skips over anyone who is ineligible.
I’m aware of that, I’m not aware that they’re required to be American born, it would be an interesting constitutional question if the president and VP died and the speaker of the house wasn’t American born.
Edit - looking into it further, I don’t see the same qualifications being required as president and vp. For example, one only has to be 25 and up to be speaker of the house, yet one has to be 35 for president or vp. So again, I wonder if they elected a 25 year old as speaker and then a plane crashed with the president and vp on board (not possible they don’t fly together but let’s play pretend) I wonder if the speaker would be promoted to president to maintain continuity of government or if they’d be passed over to whoever’s fourth in line that meets qualifications.
They would just be removed from the line up succession. We’ve had cabinet members who were ineligible for the presidency, and they were just not considered as in the line of succession, even though they otherwise would be.
Edit: here’s the text of the Presidential Succession Act of 1947
(b) If, at the time when under subsection (a) a Speaker is to begin the discharge of the powers and duties of the office of President, there is no Speaker, or the Speaker fails to qualify as Acting President, then the President pro tempore of the Senate shall, upon his resignation as President pro tempore and as Senator, act as President.
Note that it explicitly mentions the Speaker failing to qualify for the presidency
So, the whole not born here thing suddenly doesn’t apply?
I don’t think that matters for speaker of the house? It does matter for president and vp
The speaker of the house is in the presidential line of succession, right after the VP. So that’s a fair question. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_line_of_succession
Secretary of State is #4, and that didn’t stop Madeline Albright from holding that position during the Clinton years. I believe the accepted solution is that the succession just skips over anyone who is ineligible.
I’m aware of that, I’m not aware that they’re required to be American born, it would be an interesting constitutional question if the president and VP died and the speaker of the house wasn’t American born.
Edit - looking into it further, I don’t see the same qualifications being required as president and vp. For example, one only has to be 25 and up to be speaker of the house, yet one has to be 35 for president or vp. So again, I wonder if they elected a 25 year old as speaker and then a plane crashed with the president and vp on board (not possible they don’t fly together but let’s play pretend) I wonder if the speaker would be promoted to president to maintain continuity of government or if they’d be passed over to whoever’s fourth in line that meets qualifications.
They would just be removed from the line up succession. We’ve had cabinet members who were ineligible for the presidency, and they were just not considered as in the line of succession, even though they otherwise would be.
Edit: here’s the text of the Presidential Succession Act of 1947
Note that it explicitly mentions the Speaker failing to qualify for the presidency
That sounds most realistic.
Only applies to the presidency. In the case of succession, he’d get skipped. Assuming we still care about the Constitution by then.
Considering we elected someone who’s constitutionally disqualified, I’m thinking that ship has sailed.