No matter which partisan side wins the White House every four years or Congress every two, the wait between Election Day and January of the next year can seem interminable.
But can you imagine waiting another two months for the lame ducks to stop quacking?
Enter the Twentieth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted nearly a century ago on January 23, 1933.
As originally written, the Constitution decreed that Congress must meet at least once annually, but did not fix firm dates for the beginning and end of presidential terms and sessions of Congress.
Once the Constitution was ratified, the existing legislative body, known as the Congress of the Confederation, established the date of March 4, 1789, "for commencing proceedings" of the new federal government.
Such a long interval made sense in the days before people like Nancy Pelosi could commandeer Department of Defense jets to haul her assistants and herself across the country. Journeying to Washington, D.C., from various points was difficult and slow. Yet the interim between Election Day and swearing in a new Congress and/or Commander-in-Chief had the potential for crisis.
This was most acutely the case following the 1860 election when President-elect Abraham Lincoln and the 37th Congress had to wait several months before assuming office amid the secession crisis and the brink of civil war.
Similarly, an anxious citizenry reeling from the Great Depression had to wait four months for the change for which it had called -- for good or ill -- in electing Franklin D. Roosevelt and a new Congress in November 1932. It wasn't until March 1933 that Roosevelt could proclaim "that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
The Twentieth Amendment was proposed by the 72nd Congress on March 2, 1932, and was officially adopted when Missouri ratified it on January 23, 1933. At that time, 36 states were needed to meet the three-fourths standard to amend the Constitution.
Georgia, Ohio, and Utah also agreed to the new amendment on that day.
Section 1 of the amendment explicitly sets the start and end of the four-year terms for both the president and vice president as noon on January 20, which altered a clause in the Twelfth Amendment that had stated that March 4 was the date by which the House of Representatives was to decide a presidential election in which no candidate attained a majority of Electoral College votes.
Section 2 established the commencement of a new Congress as noon on January 3. This change allowed for the newest session of the House to conduct a presidential vote if necessary.
Section 3 of the Twentieth Amendment is also interesting, particularly since its parameters were almost immediately put to the test. That section, in part, states that "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."
On February 15, 1933 -- just under three weeks before his inauguration and a few days after the ratification of the Twentieth Amendment, President-elect Roosevelt was the target of an assassination attempt at a rally for him in Florida. Unemployed bricklayer Guiseppe Zangara fired at Roosevelt five times. A bystander deflected Zangara's shooting hand, which spared Roosevelt but ended the life of Chicago mayor Anton Cermak.
Had Roosevelt been killed, Vice President-elect John Nance Garner, who described the vice presidency in terms that are charitably termed colorful, would have assumed the presidency per the newly-ratified amendment.
While the Twentieth Amendment somewhat alleviated problems posed by outgoing presidential administrations and Congresses, the period between election and swearing-in leaves plenty of time for mischief and mayhem -- if not downright illegality -- even by the lamest of ducks.
Happily, Article V of the Constitution allows for the states to amend the Constitution without interference from Congress. If you are interested in supporting a limited-purpose Article V convention that will facilitate the necessary structural change to the federal government, sign the petition below:
