THE ELECTED OFFICE QUALIFICATIONS AMENDMENT¶

A Proposal to Modernize Federal Office Qualifications and Establish Equal Eligibility for All Citizens¶

Revision 3.4¶

This Amendment may be cited as the Elected Office Qualifications Amendment.

PREAMBLE¶

The constitutional qualifications for federal elected office were written for a republic that no longer exists. The Framers calibrated eligibility for a government of modest scope -- a few hundred civilian workers, fewer than a thousand soldiers, annual revenues measured in millions. The offices those standards govern now command the world's most powerful military, administer trillions of dollars in annual expenditures, and shape the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans. The eligibility standards have not been updated since 1788.

The natural-born citizen requirement compounds this failure. It bars approximately twenty-three million naturalized Americans from the Presidency based solely on birthplace -- a circumstance they cannot change and that provides no signal about fitness for office. These citizens have passed a civics examination, sworn an oath of allegiance, and chosen American citizenship through affirmative commitment. The Constitution trusts them with every responsibility of governance except the one the public might elect them to hold.

The purpose of this Amendment is to replace inherited eligibility with earned eligibility. Requirements should scale with the power and responsibility of each office. Citizenship should reflect commitment, not birthplace. The standards by which Americans determine who may seek their highest offices should reflect the republic they actually inhabit -- not the one that existed two and a half centuries ago.

Earned eligibility requires not only meeting affirmative qualifications but maintaining the standard of conduct that public trust demands. Persons whose conduct has been formally adjudicated incompatible with that trust shall not hold the offices this Amendment governs.

PART I: QUALIFICATIONS FOR HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES¶

Section 1. Basic Qualifications¶

No person shall be a Representative who shall not have:

(a) Age¶

Attained the age of twenty-five years;

(b) Citizenship¶

Been a citizen of the United States for at least five years;

(c) State Residency¶

Been a legal resident of the state in which they seek election for at least five years at the time of election.

Section 2. Timing and Transition¶

(a) Qualification Timing¶

All qualifications must be satisfied at the time of election.

(b) Continuous Residency¶

The five-year state residency requirement must be continuous and immediately preceding the election, except as provided in Section 3.

Section 3. Legal Residency Definition¶

(a) General Standard¶

"Legal residency" means maintaining civic ties to a jurisdiction through domicile, tax filing, and voting registration, regardless of temporary physical absence. Legal residency is distinct from mere physical presence.

(b) Non-Interrupting Absences¶

Legal residency is not interrupted by temporary absences for:

Education within or outside the United States;
Military service or deployment;
Temporary employment relocation;
Service in government requiring extended travel;
Other temporary absences while maintaining domicile and civic ties in the state.

(c) Intent and Connection¶

Residency requires both physical presence sufficient to establish domicile and intent to maintain that state as one's primary civic home. Temporary absences do not break residency if the individual maintains state tax filing, voting registration, and intent to return.

Section 4. Public Service Requirement¶

No public service requirement applies to House candidates. Service as a Representative counts as qualifying public service for Senate and Presidential qualifications as specified in Parts II and III.

PART II: QUALIFICATIONS FOR SENATE¶

Section 1. Basic Qualifications¶

No person shall be a Senator who shall not have:

(a) Age¶

Attained the age of thirty years;

(b) Citizenship¶

Been a citizen of the United States for at least ten years;

(c) State Residency¶

Been a legal resident of the state in which they seek election for at least ten years at the time of election;

(d) Public Service¶

Completed at least two thousand hours of qualifying public service.

Section 2. Timing and Transition¶

(a) Qualification Timing¶

All qualifications must be satisfied at the time of election.

(b) Continuous Residency¶

The ten-year state residency requirement must be continuous and immediately preceding the election, except as provided in Section 3.

Section 3. Legal Residency Definition¶

Legal residency for Senate candidates is defined according to the same standards specified in Part I, Section 3, applied to the ten-year state residency requirement.

Section 4. Public Service Requirements¶

(a) Qualifying Institution Standard¶

"Qualifying public service" means service performed within or on behalf of a qualifying public institution. An institution qualifies under this section only if it satisfies all three of the following criteria simultaneously:

1. Public Governance The institution is governed by publicly elected officials, or by officials appointed through a formal public appointment process subject to democratic oversight. An institution governed solely by a self-selecting private board does not satisfy this criterion regardless of its tax status, charitable mission, or public benefit claims.

2. Public Funding The institution is primarily funded through public appropriations, taxes, or fees authorized by statute. Receipt of competitive grants, contracts, or donations from public sources does not alone satisfy this criterion; primary funding must flow from public appropriations or taxation.

3. Public Accountability The institution is subject to public records laws, open meetings requirements, or equivalent statutory transparency obligations applicable to government bodies. Voluntary transparency practices or self-imposed disclosure policies do not satisfy this criterion.

An institution that satisfies all three criteria is a qualifying public institution regardless of whether it is formally organized as a government agency, public authority, or other entity. An institution that fails any one of the three criteria is not a qualifying public institution, regardless of its stated mission, nonprofit status, or public benefit.

(b) Illustrative Qualifying Service¶

The following categories illustrate institutions and settings that ordinarily satisfy the qualifying institution standard. Service in any capacity within a qualifying institution counts toward the requirement regardless of the specific role, function, or job title held. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive. Satisfaction of the three-part test in subsection (a) is the operative standard.

Federal, state, tribal, or local government agencies and offices, in any capacity, whether elected, appointed, or employed as a civil servant;
The United States Armed Forces or the National Guard, in any capacity;
The Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, or other national service programs established and administered by federal statute, in any capacity;
Public elementary, secondary, or post-secondary educational institutions funded primarily through public appropriations, in any capacity;
Public hospitals, federally qualified community health centers, Veterans Administration facilities, or other healthcare institutions primarily funded through public appropriations, in any capacity;
Municipal fire departments, public emergency medical services, or government-administered disaster relief programs, in any capacity;
Government agencies or public authorities engaged in infrastructure, public works, or conservation, in any capacity;
Government-funded legal services agencies subject to public accountability obligations, in any capacity;
Any other institution Congress may designate by law, provided the institution satisfies the three-part standard of subsection (a).

(c) Exclusions¶

The following do not constitute qualifying public service regardless of mission, intent, public benefit, or tax status:

Service in private nonprofit organizations, foundations, or charitable entities, including those whose missions are oriented toward public benefit;
Service in privately governed institutions that receive public grants or contracts as a minority or competitive share of their funding;
Service in private political campaigns, party organizations, or advocacy groups;
Service on private corporate boards, private professional associations, or private advisory bodies, including advisory bodies to government agencies whose members serve without appointment through a formal public process;
Self-employment or entrepreneurial activity, regardless of the social or community benefit of the enterprise;
Service that primarily benefits private individuals, families, or corporations rather than the general public, even if organized through a public institution.

(d) Rationale¶

The qualifying institution standard is grounded in the nature of the experience the public service requirement is designed to capture, not in the social value of any particular form of work. Private organizations -- including nonprofits -- are governed by self-selecting boards, funded primarily through private sources, and accountable primarily to their own internal governance structures. The constraints they impose on those who work within them are fundamentally different from the constraints imposed by public institutions: democratic oversight, public records obligations, appropriations limits, statutory authority, and accountability to elected officials. Operating within those constraints is itself a form of civic preparation that private-sector and nonprofit experience does not replicate.

The requirement does not measure the social value of a candidate's life work. It measures whether a candidate has operated within the accountability structures of democratic governance. The three-part test identifies that experience with specificity and without exception.

(e) Service Hour Calculation¶

Both paid employment and volunteer service within qualifying public institutions count equally toward the requirement;
No more than forty hours of qualifying service may be counted in any single calendar week, regardless of actual hours worked. Hours worked beyond forty in any calendar week are not counted toward the requirement;
The forty-hour weekly cap establishes a constitutional minimum period of not less than fifty weeks of full-time equivalent service necessary to satisfy the two thousand hour requirement. No service schedule, congressional designation, or administrative interpretation may reduce this minimum period;
Part-time service counts proportionally toward the weekly forty-hour maximum;
Service as a U.S. Representative counts as forty hours per week for each week of service;
Multiple simultaneous qualifying service activities do not accumulate additional hours beyond the forty-hour weekly maximum;
Congress may by law establish standards for verifying and documenting service hours;
Congress may by law increase the minimum hours required or reduce the weekly maximum below forty hours, but may not reduce the minimum hours below two thousand or raise the weekly maximum above forty hours. The two thousand hour floor and forty-hour weekly cap are constitutional minimums that no legislation may diminish.

(f) Timing of Service¶

Public service hours may be accumulated at any time in a candidate's life, including before satisfying citizenship duration requirements, and need not be continuous. Qualifying hours do not expire. Hours accumulated decades prior to a candidacy count equally with recently accumulated hours. No provision of law may impose an expiration date, recency requirement, or depreciation schedule on qualifying public service hours.

(g) Verification¶

Congress shall by law establish procedures for verifying and documenting qualifying public service hours. No person may be denied eligibility on the basis of verification procedures alone. Verification serves the public's informational interest and does not constitute an additional qualification for office. The constitutional qualification is satisfaction of the two thousand hour threshold within qualifying public institutions as defined in this section. No administrative process, documentation standard, or verification procedure may substitute its own determination for that constitutional standard or operate so as to render the qualification functionally inaccessible to candidates who have genuinely satisfied it.

PART III: QUALIFICATIONS FOR PRESIDENT¶

Section 1. Basic Qualifications¶

No person shall be eligible to the office of President who shall not have:

(a) Age¶

Attained the age of thirty-five years;

(b) Citizenship¶

Been a citizen of the United States for at least fifteen years;

(c) U.S. Residency¶

Been a legal resident of the United States for at least fifteen years;

(d) Public Service¶

Completed at least two thousand hours of qualifying public service as defined in Part II, Section 4.

Section 2. Timing and Transition¶

(a) Qualification Timing¶

All qualifications must be satisfied at the time of assuming office.

(b) Continuous Residency¶

The fifteen-year U.S. residency requirement must be continuous and immediately preceding assumption of office, except as provided in Section 3.

(c) Naturalized Citizens¶

For naturalized citizens, the fifteen-year citizenship requirement and fifteen-year residency requirement run concurrently from the date of naturalization. A naturalized citizen satisfies both requirements fifteen years after naturalization, provided they maintained U.S. residency throughout that period.

Section 3. Legal Residency Definition¶

(a) General Standard¶

"Legal residency" for Presidential candidates means maintaining civic ties to the United States through domicile, tax filing, and voting registration, regardless of temporary physical absence. Legal residency is distinct from mere physical presence.

(b) Non-Interrupting Absences¶

U.S. residency is not interrupted by temporary absences for:

Education abroad;
Military service or deployment outside the United States;
Temporary employment abroad;
Diplomatic service or other government service requiring foreign residence;
Other temporary absences while maintaining U.S. tax filing, voting registration, and intent to return.

(c) National Focus¶

Presidential residency requires maintaining the United States as one's primary civic home rather than any particular state. The requirement is satisfied by maintaining legal residency in any state or U.S. territory.

Section 4. Public Service Requirements¶

Presidential candidates must satisfy the same public service requirements specified in Part II, Section 4, with service hours counted according to the same standards.

Section 5. Natural-Born Citizen Requirement Eliminated¶

The requirement that the President be a natural-born citizen is eliminated. All citizens who satisfy the qualifications in this Part, whether native-born or naturalized, are eligible for the Presidency.

PART IV: PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION ELIGIBILITY¶

Section 1. Qualification Requirement for Succession¶

No person shall exercise the powers and duties of the office of President through any mechanism of succession or acting capacity who does not meet the qualifications for President established in Part III of this Amendment or who is disqualified under Part V of this Amendment.

Section 2. Bypass Provision¶

Any person in the line of presidential succession who does not meet the qualifications established in Part III, or who is disqualified under Part V, shall be bypassed in favor of the next eligible person in the line of succession.

Section 3. Scope¶

This Part applies to all forms of presidential succession, whether established by constitutional provision or by statute, including but not limited to succession upon death, resignation, removal, or inability of the President and Vice President.

PART V: UNIVERSAL DISQUALIFICATION STANDARDS¶

Section 1. Purpose¶

This Part establishes uniform standards of fitness for federal office. The offices governed by this Amendment carry the public's trust and confidence. Persons whose conduct has been formally adjudicated incompatible with that trust through processes demonstrating institutional consensus, or whose criminal conduct has been established through the full protections of the judicial process, shall not be eligible to hold or seek any office governed by this Amendment except as provided in this Part.

Section 2. Disqualifying Conditions¶

No person shall be eligible to hold or seek any office governed by this Amendment who:

(a) Removal from Office¶

Has been removed from any federal, state, local, or tribal public office through a formal removal proceeding whose final determination required a supermajority vote or equivalent institutional consensus mechanism. Removal by partisan vote, plurality, simple majority, or popular recall election does not disqualify under this subsection. Removal by a judicial tribunal constitutes an institutional consensus mechanism for purposes of this subsection.

For purposes of this subsection, "final determination" means the step in the removal proceeding that effectuates the removal itself, not any prior procedural step, including initiation, investigation, or referral to a trial body.

(b) Criminal Disqualification -- Crimes of Violence¶

Has been convicted in a court of competent jurisdiction of any offense, regardless of classification as a felony or misdemeanor, involving the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another.

Disqualification under this subsection is subject to the rehabilitative restoration provisions of Section 5(c).

(c) Criminal Disqualification -- Crimes of Dishonesty and Breach of Trust¶

Has been convicted in a court of competent jurisdiction of any offense, regardless of classification as a felony or misdemeanor, involving:

Dishonesty, fraud, or deceit;
Breach of fiduciary duty;
Abuse of official authority or position of trust; or
Bribery, extortion, or corruption.

(d) Criminal Disqualification -- Crimes of Sexual Abuse¶

Has been convicted in a court of competent jurisdiction of any offense, regardless of classification as a felony or misdemeanor, involving:

Sexual abuse;
Sexual assault;
Sexual exploitation; or
Any offense requiring registration as a sex offender under federal or state law.

Section 3. Conviction Requirement¶

(a) Judicial Determination Required¶

For purposes of Section 2(b), 2(c), and 2(d), disqualification requires conviction in a court of competent jurisdiction following the full protections of the criminal process, including the right to counsel, the presumption of innocence, and proof beyond a reasonable doubt. No person shall be disqualified on the basis of accusation, allegation, arrest, indictment, investigation, civil judgment, media reporting, or public belief alone.

(b) Institutional Determination Required¶

For purposes of Section 2(a), disqualification requires completion of a formal removal proceeding whose final determination met the supermajority or institutional-consensus-mechanism standard established in that subsection. No person shall be disqualified on the basis of a pending proceeding, a proceeding that did not result in removal, or a removal effectuated by a process that did not meet the institutional-consensus-mechanism standard.

(c) Pending Proceedings¶

No person shall be disqualified under this Part on the basis of pending criminal charges or pending removal proceedings. Disqualification attaches only upon the completion of the relevant proceeding as specified in subsections (a) and (b).

Section 4. Scope of Application¶

(a) Offices Covered¶

This Part applies to all offices whose qualifications are established by this Amendment:

Representative in the House of Representatives;
Senator in the United States Senate;
President of the United States.

(b) Candidates and Officeholders¶

The disqualification standards of this Part apply equally to persons seeking office and to persons currently holding office. A person who becomes disqualified while holding office is subject to removal through the procedures applicable to that office.

(c) Succession and Acting Capacity¶

No person who is disqualified under this Part shall exercise the powers and duties of any office governed by this Amendment through any mechanism of succession or acting capacity.

Section 5. Restoration of Eligibility¶

(a) No Congressional Waiver¶

Congress shall have no power to waive or override the disqualification standards established in this Part for any individual.

(b) Permanent Disqualifications¶

A person disqualified under Section 2(c) or 2(d) may have their eligibility restored only by reversal of the conviction on appeal by a court of competent jurisdiction. No executive pardon, commutation, or act of clemency shall restore eligibility under this Part.

(c) Rehabilitative Restoration -- Crimes of Violence¶

A person disqualified under Section 2(b) shall have their eligibility automatically restored upon satisfaction of all of the following conditions:

The person has completed all terms of the sentence imposed for the disqualifying offense, including any period of incarceration, supervised release, probation, parole, or community supervision;
A period of not less than five years has elapsed since the completion of all terms of the sentence; and
The person has not been convicted of any felony during the period specified in paragraph (2).

If the person is convicted of a new felony during the five-year period specified in paragraph (2), the period resets and begins again upon the completion of all terms of the sentence for the new offense, subject to any independent disqualification that the new conviction may trigger under Section 2.

(d) Removal Disqualifications¶

A person disqualified under Section 2(a) may have their eligibility restored only by a two-thirds vote of the body whose final determination effectuated the removal, expressly restoring the person's eligibility for federal office.

(e) Expungement¶

Expungement of a criminal record under state or federal law does not restore eligibility under this Part. For permanent disqualifications under Section 2(c) or 2(d), eligibility may be restored only as provided in subsection (b). For rehabilitative disqualifications under Section 2(b), eligibility is restored only upon satisfaction of the conditions specified in subsection (c), regardless of whether the underlying record has been expunged.

Section 6. Congressional Enforcement¶

(a) Implementing Legislation¶

Congress shall have power to enforce this Part by appropriate legislation, including but not limited to:

Establishing procedures for determining whether a candidate or officeholder is disqualified;
Designating the Federal Election Commission or other appropriate body to administer disqualification determinations;
Establishing procedures for challenges to eligibility;
Defining additional categories of disqualifying offenses consistent with the standards and purposes of this Part.

(b) No Reduction of Standards¶

Congress may expand the categories of disqualifying conduct beyond those enumerated in Section 2 but may not narrow, limit, or create exceptions to the disqualification standards established in this Part.

(c) Rehabilitative Limitation on Expansion¶

Any additional category of disqualifying offense established by Congress under subsection (a)(4) shall include a rehabilitative restoration pathway no less favorable than that provided in Section 5(c). Congress shall not establish categories of permanent disqualification beyond those enumerated in Section 2(c) and 2(d).

Section 7. Relationship to Existing Constitutional Provisions¶

The disqualification standards of this Part operate alongside Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This Part does not supersede, limit, or modify the disqualification provisions of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment or the power of Congress thereunder.

PART VI: EFFECTIVE DATE AND TRANSITION¶

Section 1. Effective Date¶

(a) General Effective Date¶

Except as otherwise specified, this Amendment takes effect on the first day of January following two years after ratification.

(b) Staggered Implementation¶

Congress may by law stagger the effective dates for different qualification requirements, provided that:

No requirement takes effect earlier than the general effective date;
All requirements take effect within four years of ratification.

Section 2. Superseded Provisions¶

The following constitutional provisions are superseded by this Amendment:

Article I, Section 2, Clause 2 (House qualifications) -- superseded by Part I;
Article I, Section 3, Clause 3 (Senate qualifications) -- superseded by Part II;
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 (Presidential qualifications including natural-born citizen requirement) -- superseded by Part III;
The disqualification standards of Part V apply to all offices governed by this Amendment and supersede any contrary provision of law.

All other constitutional provisions remain in full force and effect.

Section 3. Severability¶

If any provision of this Amendment is held invalid, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

Section 4. Congressional Enforcement¶

Congress shall have power to enforce this Amendment by appropriate legislation.

Revision history available in the raw file.

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Prepared by Albert Ramos for The American Policy Architecture Institute