The presidential eligibility requirements in the U.S. Constitution are short: a candidate must be a natural born citizen, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the United States for at least 14 years. A separate set of constitutional provisions can disqualify someone who meets those basics, including the two-term limit, an impeachment conviction paired with a disqualification vote, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s insurrection clause. No federal statute adds anything to this list, which is why some things people assume would bar a candidate, like a felony record, actually don’t.
The Three Affirmative Requirements
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 sets the only affirmative qualifications in the entire Constitution.1Legal Information Institute. Constitution Annotated – Article II, Section 1, Clause 5: Qualifications for the Presidency The candidate must be:
- At least 35 years old
- A resident of the United States for at least 14 years
- A natural born citizen
Congress cannot add to these, and no state can impose additional requirements on presidential candidates.
The 14-year residency requirement has never been read as requiring 14 consecutive years of physical presence. Justice Joseph Story described it as requiring a “permanent domicil in the United States,” noting that a stricter reading would have disqualified citizens serving in foreign embassies or military officers stationed abroad during wartime.2Constitution Annotated. Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation – Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 Time overseas for diplomatic or military service still counts, as long as the United States remained the person’s permanent home.
One thing the Constitution leaves unresolved is exactly when the requirements must be met. During drafting, the Committee of Style removed language that would have tied eligibility to the date a person was “elected to that office.” The final text just says a person must be “eligible to the Office of President,” which most scholars read as meaning the requirements must be satisfied by Inauguration Day. A 34-year-old who would turn 35 before being sworn in could, on that reading, run without a constitutional problem.
What “Natural Born Citizen” Means
The natural born citizen requirement is the most debated qualification in the document, largely because the Constitution never defines the term and the Supreme Court has never issued a definitive ruling on its precise meaning.3Legal Information Institute. Natural Born Citizen Two categories are broadly accepted as qualifying. The first, and least controversial, is anyone born on U.S. soil. The second is anyone who was a U.S. citizen from the moment of birth through a parent’s citizenship, even if born abroad.
Federal law fills in the details for the second category. When one parent is a U.S. citizen and the other is not, the citizen parent must have been physically present in the United States for at least five years before the child’s birth, with at least two of those years after turning 14. Time in honorable military service or employment with the U.S. government counts toward that physical presence.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S. Code 1401 – Nationals and Citizens of United States at Birth
The unresolved legal question is whether “citizen at birth by statute” is the same thing as “natural born citizen” under the Constitution. The statute doesn’t use the phrase “natural born,” and some scholars argue the term was originally understood to cover only those born on American soil. Others point to English common law, which treated children born abroad to English subjects as natural born subjects. The debate has surfaced in multiple presidential campaigns but has never been resolved by the courts. What is clear is that naturalized citizens, people born as citizens of another country who later obtained U.S. citizenship, are constitutionally barred from the presidency.2Constitution Annotated. Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation – Article II, Section 1, Clause 5
Term Limits
Even someone who meets every eligibility requirement can be disqualified by having already served. The Twenty-Second Amendment, ratified in 1951, provides that no person can be elected president more than twice.5Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Second Amendment A two-term president is permanently barred from being elected again, no matter how much time has passed.
The math is slightly different when someone finishes out another president’s term. If a vice president or other successor serves more than two years of a term to which someone else was originally elected, that person can only be elected president once on their own. The practical ceiling on time in office is therefore ten years: up to two years finishing a predecessor’s term, followed by two full four-year terms.5Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Second Amendment Serve two years or less of an inherited term, and it doesn’t count against you.
Can a Two-Term President Run for Vice President?
This is an unresolved question. The Twelfth Amendment says that no person “constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President.”6Legal Information Institute. 12th Amendment But the Twenty-Second Amendment only prohibits a two-term president from being elected president; it doesn’t say they’re ineligible to hold the office. During drafting, broader language that would have made former two-term presidents “ineligible to hold the office” was specifically rejected in favor of the narrower election ban.7Justia. Twenty-Second Amendment – Presidential Tenure Scholars have landed on both sides of whether that gap allows a former two-term president to serve as vice president and potentially succeed to the presidency. No court has ruled.
Impeachment and Disqualification
Congress can permanently ban someone from federal office through impeachment, but the process has two separate stages. First, the House impeaches and the Senate holds a trial. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate and produces immediate removal from office. Disqualification is a separate question.8Constitution Annotated. U.S. Constitution Article I Section 3 Clause 7
After conviction, the Senate can hold a second vote on whether to disqualify the individual from ever holding federal office again. That vote requires only a simple majority.8Constitution Annotated. U.S. Constitution Article I Section 3 Clause 7 If the Senate votes to disqualify, the ban is permanent and covers any “office of honor, trust, or profit” under the United States, including the presidency. Impeachment does not substitute for the criminal justice system; the convicted person remains subject to ordinary prosecution.
The Insurrection Disqualification
Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, originally aimed at former Confederates, bars anyone from federal or state office who previously swore an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or “gave aid or comfort” to enemies of the United States. It reaches former members of Congress, federal officers, state legislators, and state executive and judicial officers. Congress can lift the disability, but only by a two-thirds vote in both chambers.9Constitution Annotated. Fourteenth Amendment Section 3 – Disqualification from Holding Office
Enforcement is the practical problem. In Trump v. Anderson (2024), the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states have no power to enforce Section 3 against federal candidates, particularly for the presidency. Only Congress can enforce the insurrection disqualification against federal candidates, through legislation passed under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.10Supreme Court of the United States. Trump v. Anderson, No. 23-719 As of 2026, Congress has not passed such legislation, and the Enforcement Act of 1870 was largely repealed more than a century ago. Section 3 currently has no active mechanism for keeping a presidential candidate off a ballot.
What Does Not Disqualify a Candidate
A felony conviction does not disqualify anyone from running for or serving as president. The Constitution lists only three affirmative qualifications and a handful of specific disqualifications, and a criminal record isn’t among them.1Legal Information Institute. Constitution Annotated – Article II, Section 1, Clause 5: Qualifications for the Presidency A person could theoretically win the presidency while serving a prison sentence, and the constitutional text wouldn’t prevent them from taking office. Felony records can bar someone from far less consequential positions in many states, but the Framers left the presidency to the voters. Only a constitutional amendment could change that.
Religion is also off the table. Article VI, Clause 3 flatly prohibits any religious test as a qualification for federal office, including the presidency.11Legal Information Institute. Interpretation of the Religious Test Clause No candidate can be required to profess a particular faith, belong to a particular denomination, or hold any religious belief at all as a condition of holding office.
Vice Presidents and the Line of Succession
The Twelfth Amendment requires the vice president to meet the same constitutional qualifications as the president: natural born citizen, at least 35 years old, and 14 years a U.S. resident.6Legal Information Institute. 12th Amendment The same disqualifications apply. Someone barred from the presidency by impeachment conviction or by the insurrection clause is equally barred from the vice presidency.
The rule extends down the line of succession. The Presidential Succession Act states that its provisions “shall apply only to such officers as are eligible to the office of President under the Constitution.”12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 3 USC 19 – Vacancy in Offices of Both President and Vice President A Cabinet secretary who is a naturalized citizen gets skipped in the succession order, despite holding a high-ranking position. The line runs from the Speaker of the House to the President pro tempore of the Senate and then through the Cabinet in the order the departments were created, starting with the Secretary of State.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 3 USC 19 – Vacancy in Offices of Both President and Vice President