Who Can Be President of the United States?: Candidate Hillary Clinton and the Problem of Statutory Qualifications
| Author | Seth Barrett Tillman |
| Position | Lecturer, Maynooth University Department of Law, Ireland |
| Pages | 95-121 |
Br. J. Am. Leg. Studies 5 (2016), DOI: 10.1515/bjals-2016-0003
W C B P U S?:
C H C P
S Q
Seth Barrett Tillman*
Maynooth University Department of Law, Ireland
ABSTRACT
Qualications for public ofce restrict democratic choice, but such restric-
tions have a long pedigree in many jurisdictions. For example, the U.S. Con-
stitution sets out qualications for elected federal ofcials: i.e., Representati-
ve, Senator, President, and Vice President. Qualications for those positions
include provisions relating to age, citizenship, and residence. It has been long
debated whether these textual qualications are exclusive (i.e., oors and ce-
ilings) or whether they are merely oors, which can be supplemented by addi-
tional qualications imposed by Congress or by the States.
Once again, this issue has become topical. Former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton is a prominent candidate in now-ongoing Democratic Party primary
elections. These primaries select delegates to a national convention which will
choose the Democratic Party’s candidate for the 2016 popular presidential
election. It has been alleged that, during her term as Secretary of State, Clin-
ton violated a provision of the federal statute mandating government record
keeping. 18 U.S.C. § 2071 provides: “Whoever, having the custody of any …
record … willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates,
falsies, or destroys the same … shall forfeit his ofce and be disqualied
from holding any ofce under the United States.”
This Article addresses two interesting interpretive challenges posed by Section
2071. First, does Section 2071’s “ofce under the United States” language re-
ach the presidency? Second, if Section 2071’s “ofce under the United States”
language encompasses the presidency, is the statute constitutional? In other
words, does Congress have the power to create additional qualications for
the presidency?
* Lecturer, Maynooth University Department of Law, Ireland. Roinn Dlí Ollscoil Mhá Nuad. I thank
Professors Albert, Beck, Kalt, Samahon and Mr. Brownell for their thoughtful comments and other help.
© 2015 Seth Barrett Tillman, licensee De Gruyter Open.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.
96
5 Br. J. Am. Leg. Studies (2016)
CONTENTS
I. I: T K L I ....................................97
II. W S S? ......................................99
A. The Legal Populist ...........................................................101
B. The Historical Approach ................................................... 104
1. President George Washington’s Gift from the French
Ambassador ................................................................ 104
2. Secretary Hamilton’s List .............................................108
3. Post-Civil War Scholarship .......................................... 109
C. Presumptions of Statutory Interpretation .......................... 110
1. General “Ofce” Language does not Reach
the Presidency ............................................................. 110
2. Interpretations of Statutory Language Restricting the
Scope of Democratic Choice are not Favored .............. 112
III. I S R P,
C? .................................................................. 113
A. Judicial Authority .............................................................. 113
B. Constitutional Structure .................................................... 119
IV. C .........................................................................121
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