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The Twentieth Amendment (Amendment XX) to the United States Constitution establishes the beginning and ending of the terms of the elected federal offices. It also deals with scenarios in which there is no President-elect. The Twentieth Amendment was ratified on January 23, 1933.
Text
“ Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.
Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.
Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.
Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.
Section 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.
”History
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2010)
The amendment reduced the amount of time between Election Day and the beginning of Presidential, Vice Presidential and Congressional terms.[1] Originally, the terms of the President, the Vice President and the in-coming elected Congress began on March 4, four months after the elections were held. While this lapse was a practical necessity at the end of the 18th century, when any newly-elected official might require several months to put his affairs in order and then undertake an arduous journey from his home to the national capital, it eventually had the effect of impeding the functioning of government in the modern age.
From the early 19th century onward, it also meant that the lame duck Congress and/or Presidential administration could, as in the case of the Congress, convene or fail to convene. In the case of the administration, to act or to fail to act, or to meet significant national crises in a timely manner. Each institution could do this on the theory that at best, a lame duck Congress or administration had neither the time, or the mandate, to tackle problems. Whereas the incoming administration or Congress would have both the time, and a fresh electoral mandate, to examine and address the problems that the nation faced. These problems very likely would have been at the center of the debate of the just completed election cycle.
This dilemma was seen most notably in 1861 and 1933, as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt (plus the newly elected Members of Congress from the political party of each of these Presidents) had to both wait four months before they, and the incoming-Congresses could deal with the secession of Southern states and the Great Depression respectively.
Notably in each historical case above, there had been a concurrent, decisive, change in the political composition of both the incoming Congress and the executive administration; brought about by a robust national debate in the just prior election. From the standpoint of democratic political theory therefore, the national election, and its outcome, had worked as intended in carrying out the process of the democratic formulation of public policy alternatives, as embodied by the people's selection of a specified group of individuals who, embodied the public policy choices.
Originally, under Article I, Section 4, Clause 2, the Congress was required to convene at least once each year in December. That requirement created a mandatory lame duck session following each federal election.
The amendment was ratified on January 23, 1933. Because of Section 5, Sections 1 and 2 did not take effect until October 15, 1933, the first meeting of the 73rd Congress and the inauguration of President Roosevelt and Vice President John Nance Garner still took place on March 4 of that year.
On February 15, 1933, 23 days after this amendment was ratified, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt was the target of an unsuccessful assassination attempt by Giuseppe Zangara. If the attempt had been successful then, pursuant to Section 3, John Nance Garner would have been sworn in as President on March 4, 1933.
The first Congressional terms to begin under Section 1 were those of the 74th Congress, on January 3, 1935. The first terms of President and Vice President to begin under Section 1 were those of President Roosevelt and Vice President Garner, on January 20, 1937.
Because of this amendment, if the Electoral College fails to resolve who will be the President or Vice President, the newly elected Congress, as opposed to the outgoing one, would choose who would occupy the unresolved office or offices.[2]
Proposal and ratification
The Congress proposed the Twentieth Amendment on March 2, 1932 and the following states ratified it:[3]
- Virginia (March 4, 1932)
- New York (March 11, 1932)
- Mississippi (March 16, 1932)
- Arkansas (March 17, 1932)
- Kentucky (March 17, 1932)
- New Jersey (March 21, 1932)
- South Carolina (March 25, 1932)
- Michigan (March 31, 1932)
- Maine (April 1, 1932)
- Rhode Island (April 14, 1932)
- Illinois (April 21, 1932)
- Louisiana (June 22, 1932)
- West Virginia (July 30, 1932)
- Pennsylvania (August 11, 1932)
- Indiana (August 15, 1932)
- Texas (September 7, 1932)
- Alabama (September 13, 1932)
- California (January 4, 1933)
- North Carolina (January 5, 1933)
- North Dakota (January 9, 1933)
- Minnesota (January 12, 1933)
- Arizona (January 13, 1933)
- Montana (January 13, 1933)
- Nebraska (January 13, 1933)
- Oklahoma (January 13, 1933)
- Kansas (January 16, 1933)
- Oregon (January 16, 1933)
- Delaware (January 19, 1933)
- Washington (January 19, 1933)
- Wyoming (January 19, 1933)
- Iowa (January 20, 1933)
- South Dakota (January 20, 1933)
- Tennessee (January 20, 1933)
- Idaho (January 21, 1933)
- New Mexico (January 21, 1933)
- Georgia (January 23, 1933)
- Missouri (January 23, 1933)
- Ohio (January 23, 1933)
- Utah (January 23, 1933)
Ratification was completed on January 23, 1933. The amendment was subsequently ratified by the following states:
- Massachusetts (January 24, 1933)
- Wisconsin (January 24, 1933)
- Colorado (January 24, 1933)
- Nevada (January 26, 1933)
- Connecticut (January 27, 1933)
- New Hampshire (January 31, 1933)
- Vermont (February 2, 1933)
- Maryland (March 24, 1933)
- Florida (April 26, 1933)
References
- ^ http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/html/amdt20_user.html#amdt20_hd4
- ^ See Twelfth Amendment for details on how the Congress would choose.
- ^ Mount, Steve (January 2007). "Ratification of Constitutional Amendments". http://www.usconstitution.net/constamrat.html. Retrieved February 24 2007.
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