If Obama is proven ineligible to be president, then WHO would be president?

Self | 9/8/09 | Self

[Seizethecarp]

Assume discovery is ordered on Oct. 5 Obama could be pressured to resign. If Biden then pardonned Obama before Obama was proved ineligible in court, that wouldn't require any admission of guilt by Obama, kind of like taking the 5th. Also prior to a determination of Obama’s ineligibility Biden would have time to re-sign everything Obama had signed. I am sure there would be legal challenges to the validity of laws signed by Obama before Biden re-signed them, but only if Obama is eventually found ineligible which could take a while.

So will Biden be compelled to pick Hillary as his new VP?

[Political Junkie Too]

If Biden then pardonned Obama before Obama was proved ineligible in court, that wouldn't require any admission of guilt by Obama, kind of like taking the 5th.

Under that scenario, maybe Obama's donors would sue to get their contributions back. They couldn't let him keep his campaign contributions for personal use if he resigns his office, can they?

So will Biden be compelled to pick Hillary as his new VP?

Actually, the SoS position might be better under Biden, as he might toss out Obama's czars and go back to the traditional powers of the Cabinet, being a former "advice and consent" Senator himself.

Obama wasn't in the Senate long enough to have cared. His first-term assignment to the Judiciary committee gave him plenty of exposure during Bush's two Supreme Court nominations, but that was just for showboating for Obama.

-PJ

[The Pack Knight]

I know I'm late into this, but it's also too late for the House to choose a President. Plus, I just love this Constitutional Law stuff.

Section 3 of the 20th Amendment: "If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified."

And Congress has by law provided, in 3 U.S.C. § 19(a)(1) "If, by reason of death, resignation, removal from office, inability, or failure to qualify, there is neither a President nor Vice President to discharge the powers and duties of the office of President, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, upon his resignation as Speaker and as Representative in Congress, act as President."

First off, there's nothing in the law that says an elector's vote for an unqualified candidate is void. The unqualified candidate simply can't serve. The only way Obama/Biden's election is void is if the electors' own elections ware illegal under state law because the ticket they ran under was unqualified. I've seen no state that has such a law, however.

If Obama was not born a citizen, then he cannot serve as President. However, his election still stands, as does that of Biden. Biden would act as President until Obama becomes qualified. Since that would be never in Obama's case, Biden would serve the rest of Obama's term as Acting President.