Don't Know Much About History, Anniversary Edition: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (Don't Know Much About®) (101 page)

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.

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.

5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article [October 1933].

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.

Before this amendment was ratified, the newly elected president and Congress did not assume their offices until March following the November elections. This was a holdover from the eighteenth century when travel and communications were much slower and the pace of the government very different. However, it meant that the Congress that convened in December possibly included defeated officials to carry out the legislative and executive business of government in what was known as a “lame duck” session. Of course, the sitting president remains in power until the president-elect is inaugurated in January. While Congress is not in session, the “lame duck” president still functions, and controversial decisions and appointments are often made during this period.

Now, the old session of Congress adjourns before the elections and the new session begins in January with newly elected congressmen taking their seats at once.

Section 3 addressed a problem caused by the Twelfth Amendment. Under that amendment, the three top vote getters in a presidential race were sent to the House of Representatives in case there was no winner in the Electoral College. It was possible that none of the three could get a majority of the votes in the House, where each state is given a single vote. This section says that the vice president elect would serve until the House elected someone by a majority, or if there was no vice president elect, the House could declare who should act as president.

Amendment Twenty-one

Repeals Prohibition.

[Proposed by Congress in February 1933; ratified in December 1933. It was rejected by South Carolina.]

1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

2. The transportation or importation into any State, territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

While overturning the federal prohibition on liquor, the amendment gave the states full power to pass their own laws regarding sale of liquor within their boundaries. A number of state, county, and municipal governments continued Prohibition. However, by 1966, no statewide Prohibition existed.

This is the only amendment that has ever been ratified by conventions instead of by the state legislatures.

Amendment Twenty-two

Sets presidential term limits.

[Proposed by Congress in March 1947; ratified in February 1951.]

No persons shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as president, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of president when this Article was proposed by the Congress.

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 to the States by the Congress.

This amendment was proposed and ratified following the unprecedented and unequaled four terms of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died during his fourth term in office. It limits a president to two terms, except in the case of a vice president who has succeeded to the presidency but serves two years or less of his predecessor’s term. Harry Truman, having served more than three years of FDR’s fourth term and been elected to a term of his own, could have run for a third term under the special provision of the amendment. Lyndon B. Johnson served only one year of President Kennedy’s first term. He was then reelected in 1964 and was eligible to run again in 1968, but declined to run. Had he run and won, he would have served a total of nine years.

Amendment Twenty-three

Gives voters in the District of Columbia the presidential vote.

[Proposed by Congress in June 1960; ratified in March 1961.]

1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:

A number of electors of president and vice president equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous state; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purpose of the election of the President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Prior to this amendment, voters in the District of Columbia could not vote for president. The amendment guarantees that the District will always have at least three electoral votes, since the smallest state has two senators and at least one representative. In 1970, Congress approved a single delegate to the House of Representatives. This member cannot vote on the floor but can vote in committee and participate. The District has no representation in the Senate. If the District of Columbia were counted as the fifty-first state, it would rank fiftieth in population, behind Vermont but ahead of Wyoming, according to the 2000 census.

Amendment Twenty-four

Outlaws poll taxes in federal elections.

[Proposed by Congress in August 1962; ratified in January 1964.]

1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, of electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

While some states had imposed some sort of poll tax—an income requirement in order to vote—following the Civil War Reconstruction era, many southern states had imposed taxes as a specific means to limit black voter participation. Passed during the period of civil rights legislation that included the Voting Rights Act of 1964, this amendment was aimed at eliminating one more hurdle to voting rights for all Americans.

Amendment Twenty-five

Sets rules in the event of presidential disability and succession.

[Proposed by Congress in July 1965; ratified in February 1967.]

1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such power and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the power and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

This amendment provides clear rules for the succession in the presidency, in cases of death, removal, resignation, or disability. It covers temporary as well as permanent succession by the vice president. The amendment fills the gap in constitutional law if the president is ill and provides for a situation in which the president might be severely disabled. The first time this amendment was invoked came during President Reagan’s 1985 cancer surgery when Vice President Bush became the first “acting president.” In 2002, Vice President Cheney became acting president while President George W. Bush underwent a colonoscopy and was sedated. Some observers, including physicians, think that the amendment should have been invoked after the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan, while he was undergoing surgery.

Amendment Twenty-six

Gives voting rights to eighteen-year-olds.

[Proposed by Congress in March 1971; ratified in June 1971.]

1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Proposed during the Vietnam War era, while many eighteen-year-olds were being drafted to fight but couldn’t vote and many others were vocally protesting the war, this amendment was ratified faster than any other in American history. At the time, most states’ drinking age was also eighteen, but since then almost every state has raised the minimum drinking age to twenty-one years. The only notable Court case involving this amendment was the successful suit brought by college students who wanted to register to vote in the towns where they attended school. The Court found that the students do have that right.

Amendment Twenty-seven

Limits congressional pay raises.

[Ratified in 1992.]

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

If the twenty-sixth was fastest, this was slowest. What a surprise! Congress took about 200 years to limit its ability to give itself a raise. To be fair, it was actually the states that dallied on this one.