Needed: An Amendment to the Constitution of the United States

By Larry Judkins

Glenn County Observer

At present, there are only three constitutional requirements for holding the office of President of the United States:

He or she must be “a natural born Citizen” (a term that is undefined); (2) he or she must be at least 35 years old; and (3) he or she must be “fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”

As the 2024 presidential campaign clearly demonstrates, more than the above is necessary to prevent unqualified candidates from occupying the most powerful office in the world.

Hell, most commercial truck drivers must meet more requirements than this – which is not intended to disparage truck drivers in any way, but merely to emphasize the point that we demand more from truck drivers than we do from someone who literally possesses the power to blow up the entire world.

I have been thinking about this for months, but only began composing my ideas for a constitutional amendment the day after the presidential debate of Thursday, June 27.

I don’t expect my specific amendment to be taken so seriously that it would ever become part of the highest law of the land. My hope is simply that it will get citizens, including members of Congress and state legislatures, talking and writing about the need for such an amendment.

This, of course, assumes that our Constitution survives the next four and a half years.

Our Presidents should come from the ranks of the best and the brightest, not the worst and the dullest.

I realize my proposal is a long one, but something similar to it is sorely needed. So, for your consideration:

Amendment

Section 1: No person except a natural born citizen shall be eligible for the office of President or Vice President. No person who is a natural born citizen of the United States of America shall be eligible for the office of President or Vice President if he or she is or ever has been a citizen of another nation; that is, held dual citizenship. Natural born citizen shall be understood to mean a person born in what is or was at the time of the person’s birth a state, territory, commonwealth, concession, district, or other place in which the government of the United States has or had full or primary legal jurisdiction.

Section 2: No person shall be eligible for the office of President or Vice President who has not attained the age of thirty-five years; nor shall any person be eligible for the office of President or Vice President who has attained the age of eighty years or greater prior to the beginning of the term of office for which he or she is otherwise eligible; nor shall any person be eligible for the office of President or Vice President who shall attain the age of eighty years during the term of office for which he or she is otherwise eligible.

Section 3: No person shall be eligible for the office of President or Vice President who has not resided principally within the United States for the fourteen years immediately preceding the beginning of the term of office for which he or she is otherwise eligible.

Section 4: No person shall be eligible for the office of President or Vice President who, as an adult, has been convicted of one or more felonies, unless said conviction or convictions have occurred in the two years immediately preceding the beginning of the term of office for which he or she is serving, assuming he or she won election or appointment to the office, and the conviction or convictions are currently under appeal. Should all appeals be exhausted and the conviction or convictions upheld, the person serving as President or Vice President shall immediately be removed from office and he or she shall be replaced in the same manner in which the President or Vice President is replaced whenever he or she is unable to fulfill his or her duties for any other reason.

Section 5: No person shall be eligible for the office of President or Vice President if he or she owns or has ever owned, in any single nation outside of the United States, property or any other financial asset or assets valued at five-hundred-thousand dollars or more.

Section 6: All nondisclosure agreements, if any, for civil or criminal cases entered into by a candidate for the office of President or Vice President, whose name qualifies for the ballots in at least half of the states or whose name qualifies for the ballots of those states the combined electoral votes of which are equal to or greater than those needed for election to office, shall be null and void, and shall be released to the public no less than one year before the candidate would start serving in the office he or she is seeking. Appropriate redactions to help protect the identity or identities of the party or parties with whom the candidate has entered into a nondisclosure agreement or agreements are allowable, so long as the meaning of the agreement or agreements and all parts therein remain entirely clear to the understanding. No party involved in such a civil or criminal case shall be accused or charged with violation of said nondisclosure agreement or agreements. No person who fails to provide said agreement or agreements shall be eligible for the office of President or Vice President.

Section 7: Approximately one year prior to the start of the term of office being sought, all candidates for the office of President or Vice President, whose names qualify for the ballots in at least half of the states or whose names qualify for the ballots of those states the combined electoral votes of which are equal to or greater than those needed for election to office, shall be administered a cognitive screening test and shall undergo a general psychological evaluation. The doctors involved shall have no more than one month to review their findings, then the complete results of both the test and the evaluation shall be released to the public. No person who fails to take the cognitive test or undergo the psychological evaluation shall be eligible for the office of President or Vice President; however, the results of neither the cognitive screening test nor the psychological evaluation shall, in and of itself, make the person ineligible for the office of President or Vice President.

Section 8: No less than one year prior to the beginning of the term of office being sought, all candidates for the office of President or Vice President, whose names qualify for the ballots in at least half of the states or whose names qualify for the ballots of those states the combined electoral votes of which are equal to or greater than those needed for election to office, shall release to the public the following documents:

Birth certificates and any other records regarding the birth of the candidates;

Documents regarding places of residency for the fourteen years prior to the start of the term of office being sought;

All civil and criminal court records for the fifteen years prior to the start of the term of office being sought;

All local, state, and federal tax records, regardless of audit status or appeal status, for the fifteen years prior to the start of the term of office being sought;

All records regarding financial investments and other financial activities for the fifteen years prior to the start of the term of office being sought;

All military service records, if applicable;

All higher education records, if applicable; and

All medical records for the ten years prior to the start of the term of office being sought.

Appropriate redactions can be made to the above records only if the release of the material deemed to be in need of redaction would likely make a candidate, his or family, or any other third party the victim of a crime, or if release of the material deemed to be in need of redaction would likely pose a threat to national security. If a candidate is elected to the office of President or Vice President, and takes office, and it is then learned that he or she failed to release to the public one or more of the above records, then a congressional investigation shall commence, and, if it is learned and agreed by at least half of the members of the full Congress present that the unreleased record or records were both willfully withheld and of significant political importance, then impeachment proceedings shall be initiated.

Section 9: This article shall have ten years for ratification following its submission to the states by the Congress of the United States. Upon ratification, Section 4 shall take effect immediately; Sections 1, 2, 3, and 5 shall take effect immediately prior to the first full term of office following ratification; and, if ratification by the states takes place less than two years prior to the beginning of the term of office for President or Vice President, Sections 6, 7, and 8 shall take effect prior to the next term of office. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.