I've been rewatching season 2 of "Prison Break" on DVD while using the treadmill, and I realized that the show contains a serious constitutional error. (Shocking, I know!) Specifically, part of the continuing plotline involves then-Vice President Carolyn Reynolds' offering the VP slot on her Presidential ticket to Illinois Governor Tancredi. In exchange, Tancredi is supposed to offer no resistance to the execution of Lincoln Burrows. During the second season episode "Sweet Caroline," however, now-President Reynolds gives a speech in Chicago in which she says that she wouldn't be where she is today without the support of her home state of Illinois.
But wait, under the Twelfth Amendment, the President and the Vice-President cannot come from the same state. Thus, Reynolds and Tancredi couldn't have been on the same ticket . . . .
Wait, that's not how I read the 12th. The 12th is talking about the behavior of the electors, saying that "at least one of the people the electors vote for must be from a state other than the elector".
Now, in practical terms this may mean that no party in the world would put up two candidates from the same state, but if you had two candidates from, say, Rhode Island, and you were willing to sacrifice Rhode Island's three electoral votes, every other state's electors could cast their votes for that Pres/VP combo as "at least one" would be from "not their state".
Posted by: Derek | February 10, 2008 at 10:46 PM
Maybe it's her "home state" the way it's Hillary Clinton's. The Twelfth Amendment refers to states of residence at the time of election, not necessarily states of birth, which many people might call their "home state."
Posted by: Milbarge | February 10, 2008 at 11:48 PM