A proposed amendment to the Constitution
And Less Than: and less than
No person who has attained the age of seventy shall hold elected or appointed office of the United States or of any State.
Sixty-nine is eligible. Seventy is not.
I.
Why a maximum age
The Constitution already draws a line at the start of a career in office. It does not draw one at the end.
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Minimums exist. A maximum does not.
A Representative must be twenty-five. A Senator, thirty. The President, thirty-five. Those floors are in the charter. There is no ceiling.
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Office is not a life estate.
Some seats turn on elections. Some, on appointment and good behavior. Representation still needs an off-ramp that does not wait on death, scandal, or a rare primary.
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Tenure meets actuarial fact.
Americans live longer, and the oldest officeholders serve longer than the Framers could have planned. That is not a slur. It is a design problem the Constitution can fix.
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One number. Every office.
Congress. The President and Vice President. The federal bench, including the Supreme Court. State officers who represent the government. The line is the same for all of them.
II.
The amendment
Campaign draft language, in the register of the Constitution. Not legal advice.
Section 1. No person who has attained the age of seventy years shall be eligible to be elected or appointed to, or to serve in, any office of the United States or of any State.
Section 2. A person who attains the age of seventy years while serving in an office described in this article may complete the remainder of the term then held, but shall not be eligible for reelection, reappointment, or a successive term.
Section 3. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
III.
How an amendment happens
Article V is short. The work is political. The path is not.
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Propose
Two-thirds of the House and of the Senate agree — or two-thirds of the states call a convention.
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Ratify
Three-fourths of the states approve, by their legislatures or by convention.
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Adopt
The article becomes part of the Constitution and binds every office it names.
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Enforce
Congress may pass appropriate legislation to carry the article into effect.