Non Political Political Question

[osidak]

To be the President or Vice President you must be 35 years old a natural born citizen and a resident of the US for 14 years

To be a member of the Senate you must of been an US Citizen for 9 years and 30 years old. For the House you must of been an US Citizen for 7 years and 25 years old

The order of Succession

President - natural born citizen
Vice President - natural born citizen
Speaker of the House - 7 year requirement
President Pro Tem - 9 year requirement
Secretary of State - Can't find the requirement but Kissinger and Albright were foreign born

So how does this jib with saying that the President and VP need to be natural born citizens when the 2nd person in line on needs to be a citizen for 7 years.....

I am sure the question has been asked before but personally I never thought of it and some friends and I where talking over the weekend. I asked the question and with out fail they all thought to be member of congress you had to be a natural born citizen....

Anyway curious what others think.

[Otter74]

Interesting question - I hadn't thought about it, either. My guess (and it's just that) would be that they natural-born-citizen requirement holds regardless of line of succession, and that if one person in line doesn't meet the requirement it goes to the next person in line. But unless this is clearly spelled out in the Constitution this may be a subject open to figuring it out when it happens.

[ossiblue]

If those in succession don't qualify for the office of president, they are passed up and the next in line that does qualify becomes president. Nothing really surprising. If the Speaker of the House somehow doesn't meet the three basic qualifications, he is skipped and the President pro Temp of the Senate becomes president, etc.