Amendment XX.
SECTION 1
The terms of the President and the 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.
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20A s1 is purely a matter of paperwork but it is worth noting.
In lieu of the United States having a proper Electoral Commission, the several states all ran elections on an ad hoc and haphazard basis. They also had control over the timing of sending Representatives and Senators to Washington. Clearly this needed to stop. The bad thing is that this took 146 years to sort out. This is madness.
All of 20A exists in the dark shadow of two very important events occurring in the "lame duck" period of the United States' electoral cycle.
Lincoln was elected in 1960 but had to wait until 1861 before he became President; during the intervening period, the Southern War Of Aggression and Rebellion In Pursuit Of Retaining Slavery had fermented and boiled over. Had Lincoln arrived as President earlier, he might not have inherited half a country. Likewise, Franklin Roosevelt won the 1932 election in the middle of the Great Depression and was unable to do anything until he finally assumed the office.
Every aspect of 20A is designed to bring the ability to make appointments and pass legislation, to the incoming Congress rather than the outgoing one. This is worth remembering by way of background as this baptises the whole of this Amendment.
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.
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If you remember, Art 1, Section 4 reads:
The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be [on the first Monday in December,]* unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.
This is by law appointing a different day.
The reason for this is that America got big; real big. In the time between Art 1 being written and 20A being passed, 35 states had been added to the Union. That meant a 260% increase in the amount of work that needed to be done to ensure the integrity of the elections (of which there were now 48). That takes time to sort out; it also gives time and space to be able to finalise any legal challenges that may have arisen in the mean time. 20A S2 is strangely sensible.
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 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.
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The material difference between the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Australia, is that the position of Prime Minister is not named and so does not need a procedure of appointment written and although the position of Governor-General is named the method of appointment is not. Procedurally when the executive of the nation is both named and the manner of their appointment is also spelled out, there needs to be a set of instructions as to what to in the event of that person being permanently incapacitated.
At this point in time, either through assassination or the horrid water quality of the White House, six Presidents had died in office. 20A was also kind of written and passed, side-eying Franklin D Roosevelt, with the open speculation that he would also die in office. He would eventually eventually.
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.
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In conjunction with the opening sections of this Amendment, this is designed to bring that right of choice by the existing contingent election, to the incoming Congress rather than the outgoing one.
SECTION 5
Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.
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We have a procedural statement.
Good.
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.
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As 20A has been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution, then 20A S6 is gloriously redundant... again.
Amendment XXI.
SECTION 1
The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
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With the Great Depression in full-swing, possibly one of the most calculated and popular pieces of political theatre in American political history, was to give Americans their booze back. Of course ending the prohibition of alcohol did also mean that the United States Federal Government had a lovely source of taxation back in its hands again. Tax on alcohol is one of those things which is politically very easy to push through from a moral perspective as unlike prohibition itself which is coercive, a tax on alcohol is a purely voluntary tax. If you do not want to pay the tax, then do not buy alcohol. Simples.
SECTION 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.
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Even when you have an amendment to the Constitution, you still get little weird pieces of redundancy which specifically needed to be spelled out for no other reason than someone in a long forgotten sub-committee had a tantrum.
We have long established that the states have a 'republican form of government' (although there is never a good definition as to what the jinkies this is supposed to mean), but possibly in deference to the supremacy clause of Art 6, Clause 2, this reminder that state laws exist, even though this section materially did and does absolutely nothing, has been inserted.
The best principle of writing law, if you happen to be a lawmaker, is to make the wording as simple as possible so as to close the door to any possible gaming of the words. 21A S2 need not have even existed.
SECTION 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.
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As 21A has been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution, then 21A S3 is gloriously redundant... again.
Amendment XXII.
SECTION 1
No person 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 Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
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Under literally zero compulsion, in 1796, George Washington decided that he was tired and announced that we would not be running for a third term as President. Even though there was no law on the books, for the next century and a half, nobody else attempted to run for a third term as President until Franklin Roosevelt in 1940. The United States was not in the Second World War but it was reasonably assumed that they might enter at some point and it was during that term which they did; and subsequently with FDR still at the helm in 1944 he easily walked into a fourth term in office.
Probably having the same guy in the White House for 12 years, infuriated the Republican Party and when Roosevelt died in 1945, and his successor Harry Truman took over, they were worried about him doing the same thing. 22A was passed by Congress in 1947; Truman won the 1948 Election; and 22A was ratified under the Presidency of Eisenhower.
22A kind of hints at the almost realisation that the United States in placing the executive into the hands of the President with almost no oversight, is a bad idea. Hamilton's invention of this new form of government, which I think was so myopic that he never ever saw beyond Washington as President, is in many respects the same as making one person the monarch in all but name. Not even the government at Westminster, placed that much power into the hands of the King; with Parliament holding both the legislative and executive power.
22A contains a sunset clause which basically applied to Truman only; probably with the expectation that he was going to be elected in his own right and it probably came as a shock when he was in 1948.
22A holds that someone can't be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and if you assumed the position and took up more than half the term of someone else's, then that also counts. If we take 22A to the illogical end, not only could someone be elected on the under-part of the ticket as VP an unlimited number of times, but in theory someone could become President because someone else resigned or died an unlimited number of times. That's so much of an edge case that it is practically impossible.
SECTION 2
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.
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As 22A has been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution, then 21A S2 is gloriously redundant... again. Why do we keep on doing this?
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