The Constitution clearly spells out three age requirements for public office. In 1972, Joe Biden, a 29-year-old candidate from Delaware, was elected to the Senate. Mason said, “if interrogated [he would] be obliged to declare that his political opinions at the age of 21 were too crude and erroneous to merit an influence on public measures.”. “In America, as the President is to be one of the people at the end of his short term, so will he and his fellow citizens remember that he was originally one of the people; and that he is created by their breath. In a time before mass media, it was believed that a young man could be elected simply upon the strength of his family name, and possibly be gullible enough to be easily manipulated. There was some insight later from James Madison, writing in The Federalist 62, about why Senators needed to be older than House members. He feared the “indiscriminate and hasty admission” of people to Congress that “might create a channel for foreign influence on the national councils.”, James Monroe also wrote about the presidential age requirement making it difficult for a father and son to serve in a dynastic way. Information about the device's operating system, Information about other identifiers assigned to the device, The IP address from which the device accesses a client's website or mobile application, Information about the user's activity on that device, including web pages and mobile apps visited or used, Information about the geographic location of the device when it accesses a website or mobile application. Smart conversation from the National Constitution Center. There are no age requirements for Supreme Court Justices. Send it to us and we'll try to answer. But the idea that age brings wisdom and maturity is what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they spelled out in the Constitution that a president of the USA must be at least 35. But there's much, much more to becoming the most powerful person in the free world. Not to fret. Age is obviously no guarantee of good judgment for a politician — see New Yorkers Anthony Weiner (48) and Eliott Spitzer (54). Mason, who was 62 years of age, argued that a requirement of 25 years of age was needed for the House because of his own experience. The Scopes Monkey trial and the Constitution, The Pandemic, the President and the 25th Amendment, The Constitution Drafting Project: Libertarian and Progressive Constitutions, Lynne Cheney: Four Presidents and the Creation of the American Nation. Those requirements haven’t changed since the Constitution was written in 1787 and went into effect in 1789. This is how old Lyndon B. Johnson was at the time of his first inauguration.. We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. Explaining the 25th Amendment and what happens if the president becomes unable to serve, experts join host Jeffrey Rosen. Nothing in the First Amendment compels such an absurd result,” wrote Judge Kozinski. The one discussion of note involved two important Founders: James Wilson, a future Supreme Court Justice, and George Mason, a constitutional dissenter. Ironically, 12 of the delegates at the Constitution Convention were under the age of 35, including Alexander Hamilton. Older people have a lot of personal and historical baggage to contend with. Meaning, immigrants cannot run no matter how many years they have lived in the United States. Well, firstly, a determined age would have to be chosen, and 35 years old is an age which suggests youth and a certain maturity to be a president. In order to actually take the office, you have to be a "natural born" citizen of the country, and you must have lived in the States for at least the last 14 years… The Captain Morgan campaign claims that “Under 35s can do anything: Except be President,” and it lists some very famous business people who currently can’t run for President. Baggage. “Holding that [the state] couldn’t exclude Lindsay from the ballot, despite her admission that she was underage, would mean that anyone, regardless of age, citizenship or any other constitutional ineligibility would be entitled to clutter and confuse our electoral ballot. Coxe wrote a newspaper essay defending the need for the Constitution right after the debates were concluded. First, the President and Vice President must be 35 years of age or older when assuming office; a Senator must be 30 years of age, and a member of the House must be 25 years of age. Weird & Wacky, Copyright © 2020 HowStuffWorks, a division of InfoSpace Holdings, LLC, a System1 Company. You've got to be at least 35 years old. Some citizens want to change that. Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly, 15 constitutional amendments proposed in Republican convention platforms. Thomas Jefferson was also 33 years of age when he drafted the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The constitutional requirements to be president are pretty straightforward: You've got to be a "natural born" citizen of the United States. The Constitution makes it clear who is eligible to be a presidential candidate, stating that any person wishing to run must be a natural born citizen. The popular rum-maker Captain Morgan is proposing to eliminate any age requirements for citizens to serve as President of the United States. Bryan was just 36 years old when he opposed William McKinley in the 1896 election. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Gouverneur Morris, who wrote the Preamble, was 35 years of age and James Madison was 36 years of age. 1. The U.S. presidential elections held in 2020 will be the first where someone from, Real Tools to Help You Fact-Check Fake News. Constitution Check: Does spending on war amount to declaration of war? At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, there was little public debate about the age requirements and no discussion about the age requirement for the presidency. The U.S. presidency has been the province of people above 40. 2010-11-28 22:40:27. they have to be 35 years old because it is a law. Some note that 35 was "older" when the Constitution was written because average life expectancy in the 1700s was much lower than it is today — about 40 years, though that's a misleading average that counts the many who died at birth or in early childhood. At least three Senators – Henry Clay, Armistead Mason, and John H. Eaton – took their Senate oaths before they were legally 30 years old. Thomas Jefferson died at 83. First, the President and Vice President must be 35 years of age or older when assuming office; a Senator must be 30 years of age, and a member of the House must be 25 years of age. “The Constitution has provided, that no person shall be eligible to the office, who is not thirty five years old; and in the course of nature very few fathers leave a son who has arrived to that age,” he said in “A Native of Virginia, Observations upon the Proposed Plan of Federal Government.”. The youngest person to assume the presidency was Theodore Roosevelt, who, at the age of 42 years, 322 days, succeeded to the office after the assassination of William McKinley.The youngest to become president by election was John F. … Founding Father and first president George Washington lived to the age of 67. Wilson, who was 45 years of age, said that any age limit on serving in public office would “damp the efforts of genius, and of laudable ambition. In 2012, Peta Lindsay challenged the presidential age restriction by running as a presidential candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party candidate, at the age of 27, within the state of California. Donald Trump … What's It Like These Days for Regular People Named Trump? But there's a movement to let anyone old enough to vote, run for any office, including the presidency. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. And you're required to have lived within the United States for at least 14 years. A person is considered a natural born citizen if he or she is born abroad to American citizens. There are no age requirements for Supreme Court Justices. The Constitution clearly spells out three age requirements for public office. Have a question of your own? It was thought that by age 35, a person would have achieved enough … The U.S. Constitution imposes three eligibility requirements on anyone thinking about running for president. The ad stunt does raise a question with an interesting constitutional background. Prior to that, the Articles of Confederation didn’t say how old members needed to be to serve in the Confederation Congress. Another provision of the Constitution would block Canadian-born Bieber from becoming president, and since older Americans vote far more reliably than younger ones, there's not much chance (yet) of a president Swift. One interesting comment came from a Continental Congress member who was in Philadelphia in 1787 but not a delegate at the Constitutional Convention: Tench Coxe. In the end, Mason won the argument and the drafting committee approved age limits by a 7-3 vote. Madison talked about the need for “senatorial trust” which required “greater extent of information and stability of character … that the senator should have reached a period of life most likely to supply these advantages.”, Madison also discussed some points that some scholars believe led to the age requirements: a distrust of foreign influence and a fear of families trying to put children in place in federal office to serve in a hereditary manner. Further, he cannot be an idiot, probably not a knave or a tyrant, for those whom nature makes so, discover it before the age of thirty-five, until which period he cannot be elected.”. Editorial cartoons on COVID-19 Coronavirus, Trump, Biden, Democrats, racial strife and more from across the USA TODAY Network. And William Jennings Bryam was the youngest major party candidate to run in a general election. Some note that 35 was "older" when the Constitution was written because average life expectancy in the 1700s was much lower than it is today — about 40 years… In 2014, Federal appeals Judge Alex Kozinski and two other federal judges rejected arguments that Lindsay’s rights were violated under the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and that the 12th Amendment’s language didn’t allow states to set age requirements. Critics worry that some wildly popular young entertainer such as Justin Bieber (19) or Taylor Swift (23) might sweep into office on the youth vote. The oversights weren’t apparently noticed or challenged. France does this, and backers say it's only fair. That doesn’t mean that a few underage people haven’t been admitted to the Senate, despite the Constitution’s intent. 15 constitutional amendments proposed in Republican convention platformsConstitution Check: Does spending on war amount to declaration of war?The Scopes Monkey trial and the ConstitutionTexas voter photo ID law nullified, Filed Under: Article II, Presidency, Article II, Section 1. E-mail [email protected], or tweet #askusatoday. © 2020 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. There was no more reason for incapacitating youth than age, where the requisite qualifications were found.” Wilson pointed to William Pitt the Younger, who served as British prime minister at the age of 24, and Lord Bolingbroke, who served in Parliament in his early 20s. Biden turned 30 just a few weeks after his election and well before he took the oath of office in January 1973.

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