• Damage
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    5 months ago

    So, for an European who hasn’t been following this: criminal conviction does not bar him from running for president?

    • ThirdWorldOrder@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      The U.S. Constitution sets out three eligibility requirements for the presidency:

      1. The person must be a natural-born citizen of the United States

      2. At least 35 years old

      3. A resident of the United States for at least 14 years.

      There are no restrictions regarding criminal records.

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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        5 months ago

        which is actually good, because otherwise they could convict you for the pettiest shit or simply invent a law to convict you over, thus barring you from presidency when you haven’t done anything that people dislike.

        the problem now is that there’s a large group of people who don’t consider “being convicted of fraud” as a reason to stop voting for trump, and in fact will mos likely NEVER find any reason to stop voting for him or whoever the republicans put forward.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        5 months ago

        As a convicted felon and resident of Florida, though…he shouldn’t be allowed to vote. How could you rub for an office you can’t vote for?

          • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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            5 months ago

            I don’t disagree, but thems the ropes.

            Wouldn’t it be fucking great if he tries to go and vote live on OAN or some shit, and some smug poll worker gets to tell him he can’t vote because he’s a convicted felon.

            Oh man. That’d be better than winning the lottery.

        • Drusas@kbin.run
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          5 months ago

          Florida follows the voter laws of the state the felony was tried in. New York allows felons to vote.

      • i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        “But why isn’t there a restriction on criminal convictions for being president?”

        A: before now, nobody thought we needed to explicitly write them.

        We live in insane times.

        • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          No, the real answer is if criminal convictions barred you from office, it could be used as a political tool by corrupt politicians to prevent their opponents from running.

        • HighElfMage@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          It’s also a safeguard against the reigning power using bogus prosecutions against their opposition, like we see in many authoritarian states.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 months ago

      No it’s mostly a giant theater that so far has had zero actual impact on the election. But it makes some cultists feel like the justice system is still intact and definitely proscecutes billionaires.

      Trump will get off with some BS excuse like they always do at the end of it.

      • Drusas@kbin.run
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        5 months ago

        This verdict has done the opposite of your claim: make the cultists feel like the justice system is political and not working because they don’t like the verdict.