Check the Constitution

Your Sept. 1 editorial, “Schwarzenegger’s Close-Up,” begins with the “intriguing possibility” raised by Tony Quinn, a GOP political consultant, that the “U.S. Constitution doesn’t seem to bar Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger from becoming vice president.” The editorial wonders how he could constitutionally serve if the presidency went vacant.

The last sentence of the 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1804, reads: “But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of vice president of the United States.”

Ellen P. Aprill

Professor of Law

Loyola Law School