Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution: A Fully Annotated Declaration of Independence
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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.
Many of the most consequential amendments to the Constitution (e.g., the first ten amendments) are remarkably brief, while some of the more arcane amendments seem to require more elaborate verbiage. This is certainly the case with the Twentieth Amendment.
Traditionally, new presidents took office in March, creating a significant time gap between their election in November and their inauguration. In some cases, this time lag had serious consequences. For example, during the period between Abraham Lincoln’s election and inauguration, his Democratic predecessor, James Buchanan, found himself to be a lame-duck president at a time when Southern states were seceding from the union. In recognition of the improvements in communication and transportation since the Constitution was originally adopted, the Twentieth Amendment reduced the amount of time elapsing between the president’s election and his inauguration. It also moved the meeting time of a newly elected Congress from March to January 3, preventing the meeting of a lame-duck session of Congress whose actions might not be consonant with the will of the electorate as expressed in the November elections.
The remaining parts of the Twentieth Amendment seek to clarify the role of Congress in determining a plan of succession in case of the death or removal of both the president and vice president. For much of the nineteenth century, Congress designated the president pro tempore of the Senate as next in line of succession; from the 1880s until 1947, Congress stipulated that the secretary of state would be next in line. The decision to change the law and provide for the Speaker of the House to assume office in case of the president and vice president’s absence was shaped by the desire to have a popularly elected official—in this case the leader of the legislative branch most directly responsible to the people—assume the presidency.
AMENDMENT XXI (1933)
SECTION 1
The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
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.
SECTION 3
The 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.
Just as the Eighteenth Amendment is the only constitutional amendment to restrict the rights of the American people, the Twenty-first Amendment, which ended Prohibition, is the only amendment in the Constitution to repeal a previous amendment. The Twenty-first Amendment does not specifically allow for the manufacture, transport, or sale of liquors but, rather, returns to the states the right to regulate alcohol distribution and consumption. This amendment is unusual in that it specifies that state conventions, rather than state legislatures, should be the bodies responsible for ratifying the amendment.
AMENDMENT XXII (1951)
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 the 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.
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.
Although the people of the United States had expressed their will by electing Franklin D. Roosevelt president in four successive elections, in the aftermath of Roosevelt’s terms in office many Americans began to have second thoughts about the wisdom of allowing a president to exceed what had previously been the “twoterm tradition” set by George Washington. By the terms of the Twenty-second Amendment, Presidents are limited to two terms, or if they have served at least two years of a previous president’s term, to one term. Americans continue to disagree on whether “term limits”—either in the executive or legislative branches—are consistent with democratic governance, and there have been occasional attempts to repeal the Twenty-second Amendment, although none has come close to success thus far.
AMENDMENT XXIII (1961)
SECTION 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 purposes of the election of 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.
SECTION 2
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
The District of Columbia, seat of the nation’s government, has always occupied a peculiar place within our federal system. The Constitution empowered Congress to designate a territory “not exceeding ten Miles square” as the nation’s capital but specifically intended that the “federal district” not be within the boundaries or jurisdiction of any particular state. Therefore, while the federal government exercises much of its enormous power within the District of Columbia, that territory has been denied voting representatives in Congress, and until the passage of the Twenty-third Amendment, its residents were denied the right to vote in presidential elections. By the terms of the Twenty-third Amendment the residents of the District of Columbia are entitled to vote for presidential electors, with the number of electors representing the district being equal to the number of senators and representatives that the district would have if it were a state. On the basis of its present population, that means three electors.
AMENDMENT XXIV (1964)
SECTION 1
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for 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.
SECTION 2
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Although the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were intended to ensure African Americans the right to vote, the imposition of a poll tax—a fee that citizens had to pay to the state or locality if they wished to vote—was a common device by which states, particularly those in the South, prevented low-income voters, who were often predominantly African American, from voting. The Twenty
-fourth Amendment explicitly prohibits the imposition of taxes as a condition for voting. The amendment does not say anything about the use of the poll tax in state elections, but soon after the passage of the Twenty-fourth Amendment, the Supreme Court, citing the “equal protection” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, ruled that it was unconstitutional for states to require the payment of poll taxes as a condition for voting in state elections.
AMENDMENT XXV (1967)
SECTION 1
In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
SECTION 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.
SECTION 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 powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
SECTION 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 powers 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.
Although the Twentieth Amendment deals in part with the issue of presidential succession, the Twenty-fifth Amendment provides a more detailed description of how Congress should proceed in the event of the death or removal of a president or vice president, or in the case of the temporary disability of the president (for example, if the president falls seriously ill or undergoes an operation and is not able for a period of time to exercise the duties of his office). Eight American presidents have died in office, and one has resigned. And there have been several occasions when a president has been temporarily disabled (for example, when Ronald Reagan was wounded by a would-be assassin’s bullet in 1985, he transferred power to his vice president, George H. W. Bush, while he was hospitalized).
The amendment also deals with the delicate question of how to deal with the disability of a president when the president himself is not willing to declare such a disability. For example, in 1918 President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke and many believed that his disability prevented him from carrying out the duties of his office effectively, but there were no means by which to resolve the issue. The Twenty-sixth Amendment stipulates that Congress may, if two-thirds of the members of both houses agree, provide written declaration that the president is disabled and then transfer power to the vice president.
AMENDMENT XXVI (1971)
SECTION 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.
SECTION 2
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
It is no accident that this amendment giving citizens eighteen years or older the right to vote was passed at the height of the Vietnam War. Some of the reasoning behind the amendment was that if young men and women are old enough to serve and risk their lives in the military, then they should also be given the right to vote.
AMENDMENT XXVII (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.
The Twenty-seventh Amendment was originally part of the package of twelve amendments submitted to the states by the First Congress in 1789, but it was not ratified at that time. Agitation to reconsider the amendment resurfaced in the 1980s, as the public became increasingly unhappy over a series of pay raises that members of Congress awarded themselves. The provisions of this amendment make it impossible for members of Congress to put into effect increases in their salaries before the session in which they are serving has ended. By this mechanism, members of Congress seeking reelection have to justify their proposed increases in salary to voters during their reelection campaigns.
SELECTIONS FROM THEFEDERALIST PAPERS
THE EIGHTY-FIVE ESSAYS appearing in New York City newspapers under the pseudonym Publius between October 1787 and May 1788 and later published as a single collection under the title The Federalist Papers have achieved justifiable fame as an important statement of American constitutional philosophy. Alexander Hamilton took the lead, recruiting James Madison and John Jay to join him in the effort. In all, Hamilton wrote fifty-one of the essays, Madison twenty-nine, and Jay five. The essays were written independently, with little collaboration among the three authors. Indeed, they were written under such constraints that there was seldom time for review or revision.
Looking at The Federalist Papers as a whole, one can see that Madison tended to write his essays on general issues of government and politics—on republicanism and representation in particular—while Hamilton focused on specific issues, such as taxation or the construction of the executive and judiciary. It is perhaps for that reason that Madison’s essays, though constituting only about a third of the total, are the ones most often quoted and reprinted.
The Federalist Papers have grown more influential over time and have come to be considered an important means of understanding the intent of the framers of the Constitution. In the period between 1790 and 1800, when leaders of the new republic were facing the challenge of creating a government that conformed to the precepts of their new Constitution, The Federalist (the original published collection containing seventy-seven of the essays) was cited by the Supreme Court only once. In the whole of the nineteenth century, the essays were cited 58 times. In the first half of the twentieth century, they were cited 38 times, but in the last half they were cited no fewer than 194 times.
However much The Federalist Papers may on some occasions rise to the level of high-minded political theory, readers should also be aware that they were initially intended as political propaganda. Madison and Hamilton, whatever their intellectual gifts, were also practical politicians with a specific goal: to secure ratification of the Constitution. In that sense, The Federalist Papers, like the Constitution they were defending, need to be understood not merely as abstract constitutional treatises but also as a product of the give-and-take of the turbulent era of eighteenth-century American politics.
This volume reprints the three Federalist essays that many scholars consider to be the most important of the eighty-five. “Federalist No. 10,” which deals with the benefits of an “extended republic” in controlling the e
ffects of “faction,” and “Federalist No. 51,” which lays out the doctrine of “separation of powers,” were written by Madison. “Federalist No. 78,” written by Hamilton, is not only a defense of an independent judiciary but also lays out the constitutional argument for what would later be called “judicial review.” The essays are presented in slightly abridged form.
FEDERALIST NO. 10: JAMES MADISON, NOVEMBER 22, 1787
One of the most famous pieces of writing in all American history, “Federalist No. 10” takes a distinctly modern approach to the existence of “faction” and “interests” in American politics. Whereas most eighteenth-century commentators believed that the key to good government was to elect virtuous political leaders capable of transcending their own selfish interests, Madison accepted the existence of conflicting interests as an inherent part of any pluralist society. The best way to control the effects of faction, Madison argued, was to extend the sphere of government over a sufficiently large territory so that no one faction could obtain undue influence and subvert the public good.
Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice. He will not fail, therefore, to set a due value on any plan which, without violating the principles to which he is attached, provides a proper cure for it. The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have in truth been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished; as they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious declamations. The valuable improvements made by the American Constitutions on the popular models, both ancient and modern, cannot certainly be too much admired; but it would be an unwarrantable partiality, to contend that they have as effectually obviated the danger on this side as was wished and expected. Complaints are every where heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable; that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties; and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party; but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority. However anxiously we may wish that these complaints had no foundation, the evidence of known facts will not permit us to deny that they are in some degree true… .