WASHINGTON — QUESTION:
If former President Donald Trump is impeached and convicted can the Senate ban him from running again in 2024?
ANSWER:
Yes, under Article I Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, the Senate is given the power to remove a president and disqualify him or her from holding federal office in the future.
SOURCES:
- Robert Peck- founder of Center for Constitutional Litigation
- Mark Graber- regents professor- Department of Government and Politics- University of Maryland
- Ilya Somin- Professor of Law- George Mason University
- U.S. Constitution- Article I Section 3
PROCESS:
The Verify team spoke with a trio of law experts: constitutional attorney Robert Peck, University of Maryland law professor Mark Graber, and Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University.
We also looked to the U.S. Constitution.
Article 1 Section 3 says punishments shall, "not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualifications to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit..."
"Congress has the option when impeaching, on adding disqualification for future office," Graber said. "Given Donald Trump is no longer president, the only point of the impeachment is to disqualify him for future office."
Both Robert Peck and Ilya Somin agree that the Senate has that power.
"They can," Somin said. "However, it would require a separate vote after conviction, most likely would need to be only a majority vote. So there is a little bit of a dispute about that."
Somin says while President Trump would be banned from holding federal office, however, he could still run for state office if he wanted to.
"So he could potentially run for Governor of Florida," Somin said.
The Senate has to ban the president explicitly, Peck explained.
"Once an officeholder is convicted of impeachment, they have a separate decision to make on whether to disqualify that person from future public office," Peck said.
RELATED: VERIFY: How would the 14th amendment disqualify President Trump from running for office again?
"So while the impeachment conviction itself will not determine that, the Senate will then move to that phase and decide whether to disqualify President Trump from future office," he continued.
So we can Verify that yes, he can be barred from running again, but the Senate would have to decide to include that punishment.
You can read more about how the 14th Amendment could be used to bar a president from running again here, and more about the procedural differences between an impeachment conviction and criminal conviction here.