Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday became the second justice since yesterday to be asked to assess whether part of the Constitution could possibly allow for a president to run for a third term.
The liberal justice varied just slightly from her one of her conservative counterparts, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, in appearing to leave some wiggle room on the notion.
In an appearance on ABC’s “The View,” Sotomayor was asked if she believes the 22nd Amendment, which indicates that no president may run again if they have served in the White House twice, is settled law.
The question comes as Trump and some of his allies have repeatedly floated the idea of a third term for him. At times, those comments have been dismissed as a joke, though the president has at other points appeared more serious about the idea.
Sotomayor agreed that while the Constitution was settled law, no one had ever challenged the 22nd Amendment regarding running for a third-term.
“No one has tried to challenge that. Until somebody tries, you don’t know. So, it’s not settled because we don’t have a court case about that issue, but it is in the Constitution,” she said.
“And one should understand that there’s nothing that’s the greater law in the United States than the Constitution of the United States,” she added.
The president last month said he would “probably not” seek a third term, but added he would “like to run.” And, earlier this year, he said, “People are asking me to run. I don’t know, I never looked into it. And they do say there’s a way you can do it, but I don’t know about that.”
On Monday, Barrett told Fox News that the 22nd Amendment says a president can only run for office twice.
When asked by “Special Report” host Bret Baier if she thought “that’s cut-and-dried,” Barrett said, “Well, that’s, you know, that’s what the amendment says, right? You know, after FDR had four terms, that’s what that amendment says.”
Former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected for a third term in 1940 and later died in office during his fourth term, in 1945. In 1951, Congress passed the 22nd Amendment, which put the two-term tradition that dated back to George Washington into the Constitution.
Zach Schonfeld contributed to this report.
