An initiative idea has been filed with the Secretary of State of North Dakota. Signatures should start to be collected soon. It would provide that no one could run for Congress who would be as old as age 81 by the end of the term. See this story.
In 1995 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that neither states, nor congress, can add to the constitutional qualifications for service in Congress. U.S. Term Limits v Thornton. But the vote was 5-4 and the composition of the Supreme Court has changed since 1995. Also, the North Dakota initiative provides that in case the main point of the measure is held unconstitutional, and North Dakota can’t limit the age of congressional candidates, that the ballot should show for each candidate the age he or she would be at the end of the term.
I think this could be ruled unconstitutional.
I doubt there will be any serious effort to put this on the ballot.
Seems back in mid 1990s (the height of the term-limits frenzy, the Missouri legislature passed a bill mandating that adjacent to the Congressional candidates’ names on the ballot would be the phrase “Supports term limits for Congress,” or “Does not support term limits for Congress” or “May not support term limits on Congress.”
What determines which one depends on if the candidate signed a pledge for term limits or not.
Seems that was struck down by the courts, in large part because Constitution says that states, nor congress, can add to the constitutional qualifications for service in Congress, and that “where will it end”, ie: every interest group will want some “scarlet letter” or praise for candidates reference on the ballot and it would quickly get cluttered.
Therefore seems the N Dakota effort has big uphill battle ahead.
@Ken B,
Prior to the adoption of government printed ballots voters might inadvertently elect an unqualified candidate. Even a Legislature elected an unqualified senator.
It seems reasonable to include biographical information that they might verify that a candidate is qualified, rather than relying on the judgment of a government functionaries.
Something like this need to be done about Beijing Biden. The quisling puppet of Xi now clearly suffers from very serious terminal stage senile dementia. The 25th amendment solution would be in order, and long ago implemented if he wasn’t surrounded by Marxist lemmings. Thank Perun that Trump will be back in a year and a half, as long as the crypt keeper demon rat bastard occupying the oval office only due to a stolen election doesn’t mix up the nuclear button and his dentures on the nightstand, or forget that the Soviet Union already got the A Bomb, or otherwise get us all killed. Sure, they’ll wheel him out for Weekend at Bernies II, but the sequel won’t work out so well for the traitors pushing the decrepit geriatric piece of crap or his wheelchair.
THIS IS A PURGE LIST!
Ken B, the Missouri law said some candidates would be labeled on the ballot “Disregarded voters instructions”, which the US Supreme Court felt was not neutral, so they invalidated the law. But I think putting age would be considered neutral.
I do believe this initiative will have a serious petition effort.
Richard, why would anyone be motivated to put money and/or volunteer time into this?
Putting age on the ballot where no other information is shown besides the candidate’s name and party… why would they elevate this one characteristic like that?
You would expect North Dakota of all states, which probably resents all the woke talk about how important race and gender and sexual orientation are to an individual’s identity and life experience, and probably cheered the recent court decision about affirmative action, would never list candidates’ race or gender or sexual orientation on the ballot, because they don’t give a damn about that stuff. So why age?
How limited should Representatives be? I think they should get six years at most. And one term for Senators.
Both minimum and maximum ages for the right to exercise constitutional human rights. What’s not to like about fascism
@Andy,
North Dakota imposed state term limits in the November 2022 election. The initiative had first been blocked based on not having enough signatures, because some were fraudulent. The SOS had rejected any petitions which had been notarized by a notary who had also notarized fraudulent petitions.
If I understand it, a notary is not witnessing to the truth of an oath taken by a circulator, but only to the identity of the circulator.
So if bad-circulator and good-circulator both use the same notary, the signatures collected by the good-circulator are still good. The SOS had ruled differently and said the initiative did not qualify. He was overruled by a state court.
The initiative passed by a 63%-37% margin. The group proposing the new measure is the same as those who had backed last year’s referendum.
It may be that they are seeking to create a test case to overturn ‘US Term Limits v. Thornton’, and North Dakota has a somewhat easy initiative procedure.
There was also an effort to overturn/modfy the term limits in the legislature this spring. It passed the House 63:29 but failed in the Senate 5:41.
@Adam C.
Age, years of US Citizenship, and residence are qualifications under the US Constitution. Maybe letting voters verify that a candidate is eligible is useful information.
ONE MORE WRONG REFORM / DISTRACTION
TOTAL DANGER WITH MONARCH EXECS —
IF ANYTHING – NO EXEC CAN BE EXEC IN SAME OFFICE IN NEXT TERM OF EXEC OFFICE
IE **INVESTIGATE** ALL ACTIONS/NON-ACTIONS DURING TERM
P-A-T
http://www.iandrinstitute.org
BACK TO 1898
POLITICS IN IR STATES ANY ***BETTER*** THAN IN NON IR STATES ???
Unconstitutional from the start.
If you want to do this (I think the idea is valid and should apply to all federally-elected offices), the route to do it is a constitutional amendment. It’d either have to get 2/3rds support in both houses of Congress or the North Dakota legislature passes a resolution for an Article V Convention on the measure.
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=137535
TYRANT TRUMP AT WORK — 2025 TYRANT PLANS
expressio unius est exclusio alterius
EVEN MORE SO WITH CONSTS
Ageism, pure and simple prejudice.
https://babylonbee.com/news/bidens-granddaughter-relieved-to-have-been-disowned-after-seeing-biden-eat-baby
AZ so wants more Biden even after this.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/authoritarianism-ballot-experts-worried-over-175218269.html
“Authoritarianism will be on the ballot”: Experts worried over Trump’s “alarming” 2025 plot
TYRANT T GANG AT WORK
A constitutional amendment would indeed be warranted to prevent any additional disasters such as the Biden presidency. Unfortunately, that would require agreement among more states than your present political chasm will allow. Devolution of power to a much more local level, radical simplification of laws, severe limitations on the franchise (and equally on officers / officeholders), and keeping government out of everything except defense against foreign invaders at the national level and against mala in se crimes at the local level would solve such issues, but your system of government is evolving in the opposite directions. Pointing out problems with our system of government wouldn’t make that any less true.
Babylon Bee > NYT, salon and other AZ FAKE NEWS links.
AZ loves to spread fake news.
Is he on the Biden payroll?
HOW MANY BAN TROLL MORONS ON THE DNC/RNC BIDEN/TRUMP RUSSIA/RED CHINA PAYROLLS ???
IT SHOWS IN ALL THEIR 0.1 IQ POSTS
AZ admitted he’s on Biden and China’s payroll!
Thanks Tim. It seemed highly likely, but it’s still nice to know he finally admitted it.
TROLL MORONS — TOO 0.1 IQ STUPID TO NOTE QUESTIONS VS STATEMENTS
ALMOST AS BAD AS 0.001 IQ NEW AGE *** JOURNALISTS ***
Unlike clueless preschool troll morons such as AZZ, most of us know the difference. For example:
Question: Is AZZ a clueless preschool troll moron?
Fact: AZ is a clueless preschool troll moron.
TROLL MORONS – BARELY ABLE TO BE 0.0001 IQ PARROTS IN QUESTIONS AND SO-CALLED FACTS.
—
P-A-T — POLITICAL FACTS
Yes, we already know this about AZ. BUT what does the AZ artificial ztupidity have to tell us that we don’t already know? Anything at all? No?
I doubt it has anything of value to tell us.
I agree with Paul E. Walker, Fred, Max, Tim, Pat, and Sam.
Thank you, but it’s Waller, not Walker.
My apologies for autocorrect butchering your family name.
Supposedly the advocate for the legislative term limits passed in 2022 drives around in a car with sign plastered all over advocating for congressional term limits. One representative claimed a circulator told her that it was for congressional term limits. When she showed him the text, the circulator ran away. I don’t know if that is literal or figurative.
Most of the For campaign funds for the amendment came from Florida-based US Term Limits.
It is interesting that Richard Winger speculated that the new initiative is intended to build a test case to overturn ‘US Term Limits v. Thornton’
Geriatric senile dementia patients who refuse to retire from positions of leadership are an increasing problem. Just look at the Chinese puppet installed through a stolen election in the white house for a prime example.