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Article II, Section I of the Constitution offers the following three requirements for becoming president of the United States: - The candidate must be at least 35 years old.
- The candidate must be a natural-born U.S. citizen.
- The candidate must have resided in the U.S. for at least 14 years at the time of the election.
Those are the only stipulations -- the Constitution doesn't mention anything about rap sheets. So technically you could preside in the White House after doing a stint in the Big House. Long before he ran for office, George W. Bush was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for driving
under the influence of alcohol. He pleaded guilty, paid a fine, and had his driver's license suspended for 30 days. Over a century earlier, a sitting president was arrested for a vehicular crime. President Ulysses S. Grant was caught speeding in his horse and buggy. He, too, pleaded guilty, paid a $20 fine, and had his buggy impounded. * Editor's Note: This column originally ran with a factual error. The error has been corrected. The column stated "...then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976..." George W. Bush was elected Governor of Texas in 1994. We apologize for the error.
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