Ineligibility Clause

The Ineligibility Clause (sometimes also called the Emoluments Clause, or the Incompatibility Clause, or the Sinecure Clause), is a provision in Article 1, Section 6, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution that puts a limitation on the employment of members of Congress, not the employees of the executive branch of the federal government, from serving or holding other offices. This clause expressly bars incumbent senators or representatives from being appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, and forbids federal executive and judicial officers from simultaneously serving in Congress. The purpose of the clause is twofold: first, to protect the separation of powers philosophy (upon which the federal frame of government is built); and second, to prevent Congress from conspiring to create offices or increase federal officials' salaries with the expectation that members of Congress would later be appointed to these posts.

No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

The Framers of the Constitution understood this clause primarily as an anti-corruption device. Painfully familiar with the system of "royal influence," whereby the English kings had "purchased" the loyalty of Members of Parliament with appointment to lucrative offices, the Framers sought to limit the corrupting effect of patronage and plural office holding in the new Republic. Drawing on examples provided by the bans on plural office holding contained in contemporaneous state constitutions, and in the Articles of Confederation, the Framers crafted a ban on dual office holding, which Alexander Hamilton described in The Federalist No. 76 as "an important guard against the danger of executive influence upon the legislative body."

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