Pourquoi pas Bill comme vice-président ?

Parmi les diverses hypothèses et spéculations encombrant la chronique politique américaine, et particulièrement autour de la candidature possible/probable de Hillary Clinton à la présidence, celle-ci fait rêver : un ticket Clinton-Clinton… Soit, Hillary Clinton candidate à la présidence, avec comme co-listier pour la vice-présidence, son mari Bill Clinton.

Est-ce possible ? Politiquement, psychologiquement, etc., c’est ouvert au débat et on verra. Mais juridiquement ? Voilà une matière magique pour les professeurs de droit, spécialistes constitutionnalistes divers et autres.

Le Washington Post publie un article là-dessus, le 20 octobre. Quelques extraits pour vous mettre en bouche sur cette référence parfaite de la complication juridique et constitutionnelle :

«A subsequent sampling of opinion from professors of constitutional law, former White House lawyers and even a couple of federal judges reveals a simmering disagreement on whether a president who has already served two terms can be vice president. Some agree with the conclusion that the presidential term limit embedded in the Constitution bars someone such as Clinton from returning to the White House even in the No. 2 slot. Others, though, call that a misreading of the literal language of the law.

»As the former president might say, it all depends on the meaning of the word “elected.” Under Article II of the Constitution, a person is “eligible to the Office of President” as long as he or she is a natural-born U.S. citizen, at least 35 years old and a resident of the United States for 14 years. The 12th Amendment says “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President.”

»Okay, so that means if you're not eligible to be president, you're not eligible to be vice president. Makes sense. What would be the point of electing a vice president who can't succeed the president in case of death, incapacity or vacancy?

»But then Congress and the states added the 22nd Amendment in 1951 to prevent anyone from following the example of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won four terms. That's where things get dicey. “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,” the 22nd Amendment says.

»On its face, that seems to suggest that Clinton could be vice president because he is only barred from being elected president a third time, not from serving as president. That's the argument of Scott E. Gant, a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner in Washington, and Bruce G. Peabody, an assistant professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. The two wrote a law review article in 1999 called “The Twice and Future President” and reprised the argument this summer in the Christian Science Monitor.

»“In preventing individuals from being elected to the presidency more than twice, the amendment does not preclude a former president from again assuming the presidency by means other than election, including succession from the vice presidency,” they wrote. “If this view is correct, then Clinton is not 'constitutionally ineligible to the office of president,' and is not barred by the 12th Amendment from being elected vice president.”»

Mis en ligne le 23 octobre 2006 à 12H01