Edward Davies

The other answers are kind of correct, however, not completely. The only position(s) that can be prohibited are those of President and likely (but not conclusively) Vice-president. However this only comes into play if the president in question has served more than 6 years in that office.

So technically, the position(s) is off-limits to Mr. G. W. Bush and Mr. Clinton. However, Mr. G. H. W. Bush and Mr. Carter would still be legally allowed to serve in those positions.

 

Brian Collins, I am Mrrrican, and actually do know stuff about our history and laws.

If the President has served two terms, then they cannot be elected into office for a third term.

Whether they can succeed into a third by assuming a job along the chain of succession has not been constitutionally tested. There is nothing constitutionally prohibiting it, except for perhaps Vice President.

It could be argued, that since a President is elected customarily alongside a Vice President, that they are both elected, and then a President would also be constitutionally ineligible to be VP.

However, I can imagine a scenario where a President picks a VP after the election, and then that VP was not elected. That has not been done in centuries, with the exception of Gerald Ford, but as far as I know, it is perfectly legal.

I see no reason that a President could not be the head of the Department of Justice or something else along the chain of succession though, because those are not tied to the constitutional eligibility of the President.

Military?

This is not strictly prohibited, however, this would be entering murky waters. Never in history has a former president (re-?)joined the US military.

Technically the President is the highest possible rank in the military chain of command… Customs and courtesies extend to the President, and at times Presidents have even worn military uniforms.

I cannot imagine a former president ever enlisting. They have too many qualifications, and almost necessarily have a college degree. Being an officer would be almost necessary.

Unless fitness standards are changed, a President would have difficulty commissioning because they would be at least 39 years old leaving office. So technically, at the moment, no President could ever join the military under normal circumstances. For some jobs like lawyer or doctor it may be possible to get a waiver after age 31.

If this ever happened though.. my questions would be:

* What is the Presidents new rank?

* What is the Presidents pay grade?

* Does serving as President count as time in service?

 

Anthony O Hughes, Military Historian-Archivist

To provide an addendum to some of the other really good answers, it is unknown what would happen in modern times if a President attempted to join the military after office. Another area I’m surprised no one mentioned was the intelligence services. A former President could not be a field officer of the CIA since he or she would be a risk to be deployed overseas in a covert assignments. And, as mentioned, the President could not be President again if elected or assumed to office twice already.

THE MILITARY QUESTION

The President of the United States, while serving as President, holds a unique military title known as “Commander-in-Chief” which is a supreme commander type position granted by the Constitution. Essentially, the President is absolute dictator of the military and can give direct orders to anyone in the chain of command. This is a very difficult concept for some non-American countries to understand, especially in countries where the military leadership exists separate from the civilian government.

Dwight Eisenhower served as General of the Army both before and after being President.

So, as to the President joining the military after office, this has only been tested once in modern times with Dwight Eisenhower. In his case, he was a General of the Army (five stars) with status as an active duty officer for life due to the laws surrounding the five star ranks and how they received retirement benefits. When Eisenhower became President, he was required by law to resign his military commission in order to be the civilian President with the title Commander-in-Chief. The day after he left office, in special orders from the Army, he was re-commissioned as a five star officer.

Apart from Eisenhower, the only other historical example was George Washington who was appointed a lieutenant general in the U.S. Army after serving as President. This was a highly unique situation which will probably never happen again, mainly that Washington was asked to lead the Army in case the US went to war with France. Operationally, Washington did very little, and historians today believe the Army establishment simply wanted to send a message to France that if you fight us, we will be led by Washington (who the French deeply respected). But there was nothing legally or constitutionally about Washington not being allowed to be in the military after serving as President.

In the modern age, a completely unknown area which would require some hard looks at the Constitution is what would happen if the President was a military reservist. In that case, he (or she) could very easily be eligible go back into the military possibly at a field rank such as Colonel or Brigadier General depending on their rank when they were elected President. It would also be unknown if they would be required to resign their commission while President or simply be slated to the inactive reserves.

This question has been tested in modern times quite often by members of Congress who served as inactive reservists while in office. One of the Secretaries of the Navy (I forget which one), while serving as Secretary was also in the Navy Reserve.

Similarly, one of the Governors of Missouri was a naval reservist, on active drill status, while he was serving as governor. There was nothing legally prohibiting them from serving in the reserves and it would be a very hard topic to interpret if the President was also a military reservist while he was in office.

 

Zev Sero, Committed Republican who will never vote for Donald Trump

Which jobs are prohibited for the former US presidents?

It depends how many terms they’ve served. If they’ve been elected president twice already, or they’ve been elected once in their own right and also served more than two years of another president’s term, then they cannot be elected president or vice president (but can still become president by serving as speaker of the house when both the presidency and vice presidency fall vacant).

If a person has never been elected president in his own right, then it doesn’t matter how many times he filled out another president’s term, he’s still eligible to one term of his own. And stints of less than two years filling someone else’s term don’t count at all. A person could, in principle, be elected vice president ten times, each time acting as president for less than two years of the term, and still be eligible to two terms of his own.

None of this is of practical relevance, since former presidents nowadays have so much income that they don’t have to work again. They take easy and lucrative jobs like being company directors, and they give speeches for lots of money, so why would they want to do anything else? It would be refreshing, though, to see a young ex-president do as John Qunicey Adams did, and return to Congress, or perhaps go into state politics, as a public service rather than out of ambition.

 

Geoff Twardokus, I've read some things

The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Basically, you can only be elected President twice, consecutively or not. The 12th Amendment further reads in part:

But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

So it is fairly clear that a two-term former President can never be President or VP, though the latter has yet to be tested in court. Other than those Constitutional restrictions, the President becomes a private citizen after leaving office and is free to do as he likes within the bounds of US law.

 

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