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According to numerous news articles I have seen in the last few days, Kamala Harris may be looking for a white male Vice President pick, to appeal to a wider range of voters. [I don't think she has stated this explicitly; this is the projection of political analysts based on the strategic value of the decision]

As far as I understand, choosing someone for a job based on skin color is racial discrimination and illegal, unless skin color is a factor in the ability to perform the job.

Does the fact that people will vote for a white male (based on their own baseless racial discrimination!) make it legal to pick someone who will increase the likelihood of election? Or does the fact that skin color has no bearing on the ability to carry out the duties of Vice President make this illegal?

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  • Seems like a lot of speculation about a very current event with a lot of unknowns.
    – Joe W
    Commented Jul 23 at 20:03
  • Also should be noted that 48 of 49 vice presidents have been white men and 45 of 46 presidents being white men with all 46 of them being men.
    – Joe W
    Commented Jul 23 at 20:44
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    This is patently absurd, do you think it was illegal to choose almost every other vice presidential candidate with this same criteria?
    – Tiger Guy
    Commented Jul 24 at 14:36

2 Answers 2

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This is not an employment decision. It is a decision to choose who to associate with on the ballot.

A Presidential candidate is not prohibited from approaching the election of their running-mate with a closed mind on any number of factors, including race or gender.

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  • And as Harris is not white 'discrimination' is hardly likely – more like the opposite: wanting a balanced partnership.
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Jul 23 at 19:29
  • @WeatherVane discrimination is discrimination. If a company hires a white man because he is a white man, it is illegal discrimination regardless of the race or sex of the CEO, of the hiring manager, or if anyone else the newly hired white man is supposed to be working with.
    – phoog
    Commented Aug 2 at 22:27
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This is not an employment decision, so employment laws don't apply. It's also illegal to discriminate by age or national origin, yet we only allow presidential (and by extension vice presidential) candidates to be 35 years or older natural born citizens.

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  • So it would be legal to only allow presidential candidates who are white?
    – chortkov2
    Commented Jul 23 at 19:39
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    @chortkov2 allow - by whom? The Constitution outlines the requirements, race is not a factor. So States cannot pass a law adding a restriction not listed there.
    – littleadv
    Commented Jul 23 at 19:42
  • @littleadv That said, states do have laws restricting who can show up on the ballot for their state. Additionally, though this is irrelevant to your point, some states (Colorado, Maine, Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan) indicated Trump might not be on the ballot due to their interpretation of section 3 of the 14th amendment. I'm unsure on the status of all of those, though I think at least one of them has been overruled, if not all of them.
    – Ben Hocking
    Commented Jul 23 at 20:22
  • @BenHocking for State/local election - yes, not for Federal elections. The 14th amendment claim has been rejected by SCOTUS. That said, it is also a constitutional restriction, even if validated, not a State-initiated law.
    – littleadv
    Commented Jul 23 at 20:25
  • @BenHocking The supreme court has already rejected that argument that states can remove someone from the ballot for the 14th amendment so that isn't relevant at all.
    – Joe W
    Commented Jul 23 at 20:32

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