It is the ultimate political trivia question. You’re sitting at a bar, or maybe arguing with your uncle at Thanksgiving, and someone asks: Can you be vice president after being president twice? Most people jump straight to a "no." They think the 22nd Amendment is a brick wall. They assume that if you’ve served your eight years, you’re basically retired from the executive branch forever.
But law is rarely that simple. Especially constitutional law.
The short answer? It is an unresolved legal mess. We have two different parts of the Constitution—the 12th Amendment and the 22nd Amendment—that seem to be picking a fight with each other. There isn't a "yes" or "no" answer yet because no two-term president has ever tried it. But if someone like Barack Obama or George W. Bush were ever tapped for the VP slot, we would see a Supreme Court battle that would make Bush v. Gore look like a playground dispute.
The 22nd Amendment Problem
Let's look at the actual text. This is where the confusion starts.
The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951 after FDR broke the two-term tradition, says: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice."
Notice that word? Elected.
It doesn't say a person cannot serve as president. It doesn't say a person cannot be the president. It specifically restricts the act of being elected to the office. This is a massive distinction. If you are the Vice President and the President dies, you aren't being "elected" to the presidency; you are succeeding to it.
Why the wording matters
Constitutional scholars like Bruce Ackerman and others have pointed out that the writers of the 22nd Amendment were very specific. If they wanted to ban someone from ever holding the powers of the presidency again, they could have said "no person shall hold the office." They didn't. They targeted the ballot box.
This creates a weird back-door. If a two-term president is appointed or succeeds to the office, are they breaking the law? Technically, no. They weren't elected.
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Enter the 12th Amendment
This is where the "No" camp gets their ammunition. The 12th Amendment deals with how we elect the President and VP. It has a tiny sentence at the very end that carries a lot of weight: "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."
Basically, if you can’t be the Big Boss, you can’t be the Deputy.
So, the debate hinges on one question: Does the 22nd Amendment make a two-term president "ineligible to the office," or does it just make them "ineligible to be elected"?
- The "Ineligible" Argument: Critics say that if you can't be elected, you aren't fully eligible for the office. Therefore, the 12th Amendment bars you from the VP spot.
- The "Elected Only" Argument: Proponents say "eligibility" refers to the core requirements in Article II—being 35 years old, a natural-born citizen, and a resident for 14 years. Since the 22nd Amendment only limits election, the person is still technically "eligible" to hold the office via succession.
It’s a linguistic nightmare. Honestly, it feels like something a lawyer would dream up to give themselves a headache.
What Real Experts Say
You won't find a consensus here.
Professor Akhil Amar at Yale Law School, one of the heavyweights in constitutional theory, has argued that the spirit of the law suggests a former president shouldn't be in the line of succession. The idea is that you shouldn't be able to do an end-run around term limits.
On the flip side, some legal analysts argue that the Constitution must be read literally. If the 22nd Amendment only bans "election," then the "eligibility" mentioned in the 12th Amendment remains untouched for two-termers. They are still natural-born citizens over 35. They are still "eligible."
Imagine a scenario where a popular former president, let's say Bill Clinton back in 2008 or 2016, had been picked as a VP. The political outcry would have been insane. The opposition would have filed lawsuits in every swing state within minutes.
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The Succession Act of 1947
There’s also the issue of the line of succession. If a two-term president can’t be VP, can they be Speaker of the House? The Speaker is next in line after the VP. If the President and VP both vanish, the Speaker becomes President. If a former two-term president is the Speaker, do they just get skipped?
The law doesn't say.
We are operating in a gray zone where tradition and "common sense" usually prevent these questions from becoming reality. But "common sense" isn't a legal precedent.
Can You Be Vice President After Being President Twice? The Practical Reality
Politics usually stops this from happening before the courts do. A former president has a huge ego. Usually. Would a former Commander-in-Chief really want to sit in the back of the room and attend funerals for foreign dignitaries? Probably not.
Also, the "Shadow President" problem is real. If a former two-term president is the VP, everyone knows who is really running the show. It undermines the actual President. No candidate wants a VP who outshines them or brings a constitutional crisis to the ticket on day one.
However, in a crisis or a highly polarized era, a party might get desperate. They might want the star power of a former president to guarantee a win.
Historical Near-Misses
We haven't seen this play out in the US, but we’ve seen variations of "musical chairs" in other countries. Think of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev in Russia. Putin served his limit, became Prime Minister while his buddy was President, and then swapped back.
The 22nd Amendment was specifically designed to stop that kind of power-looping. But because the drafting was a bit narrow, the loophole remains theoretically open.
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The Supreme Court’s Likely Stance
If this ever went to the high court, how would they rule?
The current court tends to lean toward Originalism or Textualism. Textualists look at the literal words on the page. If they look at "No person shall be elected," they might say, "Well, it says elected. It doesn't say they can't be VP."
But they also care about the structure of the Constitution. They might decide that allowing a former president to be VP violates the "spirit" of the 22nd Amendment so deeply that it must be unconstitutional.
It’s a toss-up.
Actionable Insights for Political Junkies
If you are tracking this or writing about it, keep these three things in mind:
- Watch the terminology. If someone says it's "illegal," ask them to show you where it says they can't serve. They can't. They can only show you where it says they can't be elected.
- The 12th Amendment is the key. The whole argument lives or dies on whether "eligible to the office" means "eligible to be elected to the office."
- Check the Speaker of the House. Keep an eye on former presidents who might run for Congress. If a former two-term president becomes Speaker, the 22nd Amendment debate becomes even more urgent because they are only two heartbeats away from the Oval Office without ever being on a national VP ticket.
Ultimately, the question of whether you can be vice president after being president twice remains one of the great "what ifs" of American democracy. Until a former president actually files the paperwork to run as a second-in-command, we are just guessing. But the loophole is there, squinting at us from the pages of the Constitution, waiting for someone bold enough to try and walk through it.
If you're looking for a definitive answer, you won't find one in a textbook. You'll only find it if a candidate ever decides to test the limits of the law in front of the Supreme Court. Until then, it's just a very high-stakes "maybe."
To stay ahead of this debate, monitor the Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings for any unusual activity from former presidential committees and keep a close eye on the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports, which occasionally update their interpretations of presidential succession laws.