Constitutional-Interpretation Question

[Demo318]

I have a question...

If a person, who has previously served two terms as the president of the United States, is named vice-president and the president late becomes incapacitated and is unable to fulfill his duties, can the vice-president take over or would the speaker of the house pass him over to take the president's job?

Thx

[Miss P]

I have a question...

If a person, who has previously served two terms as the president of the United States, is named vice-president and the president late becomes incapacitated and is unable to fulfill his duties, can the vice-president take over or would the speaker of the house pass him over to take the president's job?

Thx

This is an unsettled question, obviously, since there have never been any two-term former presidents who have become vice presidents, but I think that the vice president could take over.  The 22nd Amendment speaks to qualifications for election, not qualifications for service.  A possibly more troublesome amendment is the 12th, which says that no person who is ineligible for the office of the presidency is eligible for the office of the vice presidency.  Some people would surely raise challenges to your hypothetical vice president's candidacy for vice president in the first place on this basis. Nonetheless, the plain language of the 12th Am. is about qualifications for service.  If you accept the distinction between service and election, the 12th Am. is no problem either.