Some Democrats concerned about how rapidly former President Donald Trump is rising in the polls following President Joe Biden’s horrendous debate are offering up what they call “Plan C,” and some people are already shouting about constitutional concerns. According to political insider Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner, Plan C involves replacing Vice President Kamala Harris with former President Barack Obama.
“A Biden-Obama ticket would have a much better chance of beating Trump,” said legal scholar John Banzhaf, a professor at George Washington University Law School. “Barack Obama is probably one of the few persons whom a majority of Americans would want and trust as president, so Plan C might be the least objectionable of a number of very unpopular and dubious options now open to Biden and the Democratic Party,” he added on Thursday.
Banzhaf cited analyses by constitutional scholars who pooh-poohed concerns that the 12th and 22nd Amendments bar a former two-term president from the vice presidency. “The 22nd Amendment, which is most frequently cited as a bar to Barack Obama ever serving as president again, doesn’t — according to its carefully crafted and very narrow exclusionary language,” Banzhaf said.
The critical sentence in the amendment says, “No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice, and no person who has held the office of the 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.” Banzhaf added that “while this amendment may bar Obama from ‘being elected’ to the office of president again, it obviously and by its clear language doesn’t prohibit him from being elected as vice president, and subsequently becoming president by succession without ever being elected to the office again.”
He further broke down the language of the 12th Amendment. “According to the overly precise language deliberately carefully chosen by the drafters, Obama cannot ‘be elected to the office of the president,’ but there’s nothing to say that he cannot be elected to the office of the vice president, and then succeed to the presidency if Biden becomes unable to perform his presidential duties or simply resigns. In other words, Obama is not now ‘ineligible to the office of president’ and therefore ineligible to run for vice-president; rather he is only ineligible to be ‘elected’ to the office of the president, not ineligible to attain the office by succession,” he wrote in an email.
“Rather than simply offering the public the opportunity to have a second-term Biden president supported and backstopped by a very popular and clearly very capable former president Obama, and having someone with experience and a proven record as commander in chief should Biden not be able to continue to serve at anytime during a second four-year term, Biden might even consider announcing before the election that, if elected president, he would resign shortly after his inauguration so that Obama can then become president,” Banzhaf wrote.
He added, “In addition to claiming that stepping down is the statesman-like thing to do, Biden could argue that resigning would be necessary to permit him to break his promise not to pardon his son, Hunter Biden. Indeed, letting Obama take over would also limit the adverse political fallout of going back on his previous commitment.”
However, others argue that the 12th Amendment actually does prevent Obama from even becoming vice president. While the concept is interesting, the final section of the 12th Amendment states: “But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.” How this interacts with the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidents to two elected terms, is uncertain, but on the face of it, Obama wouldn’t be permitted now to become vice president.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.