The act established that a person who becomes an acting president under the act will earn the same compensation given to the President. Based on that same authority, the act also applies to situations in which there is neither a president-elect nor a vice president-elect on Inauguration Day. The act has been modified by a series of incidental amendments to reflect the creation of new federal departments. This statute in part merged the Department of War renamed as the Department of the Army and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment renamed Department of Defense in , headed by the Secretary of Defense.
In and , respectively, the Postmaster General was removed, as a result of the Postal Reorganization Act , and the Secretary of Energy was inserted at the end of the list. In , when the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was divided by the Department of Education Organization Act , its secretary was replaced in the order of succession by the Secretary of Health and Human Services , and the new Secretary of Education was added in the last position.
In and , respectively, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and then the Secretary of Homeland Security were added, becoming the 16th and 17th statutory successors beyond the vice president to the powers and duties of the presidency. When the latter department was created in , the act creating it did not contain a provision adding the new department's secretary into the line of presidential succession. Secretaries of newly-created cabinet-level departments are not automatically included, but must be specifically incorporated.
Both bills strayed from tradition, however, by proposing to place the SHS in the line of succession directly after the Attorney General rather than at the end of the line.
Proponents of placing the SHS high in the order of succession eighth overall, as opposed to eighteenth argued that, given the department's many responsibilities in the areas of security and national preparedness, the officer responsible for disaster relief and security, could be expected to possess the relevant knowledge and expertise to capably function acting as President following a catastrophic event; the same could not be said of every cabinet secretary.
Referred to committee, no action was taken on these proposals. While it has not become necessary to invoke the Act, the vice presidency was vacant at the time of its adoption, and has been vacant three more times since: [10].
Had the president died, resigned, been removed from office or been disabled during one of these vacancies the speaker of the House would have become Acting President. The nation faced the prospect of such a double-vacancy in the autumn of With the future of Richard Nixon 's presidency in doubt on account of the Watergate scandal , and with the vice presidency vacant following Spiro Agnew's resignation, there was a possibility that Speaker of the House Carl Albert might become acting president.
The Twenty-fifth Amendment also established a procedure for responding to presidential disabilities whereby a vice president could assume the powers and duties of the presidency as Acting President; two presidents have, on three occasions, followed this procedure to declare temporary disability: [34]. During the September 11, terrorist attacks , the Secret Service carried out its plan for ensuring the continuity of government , which in part called for gathering up persons in the presidential line of succession and taking them to a secure location , to guarantee that at least one officer in the line of succession would survive the attacks.
There is a long history, dating back to the Cold War era, [38] of keeping a designated successor away from events at which numerous high ranking federal officers—including the President, Vice President, Congressional leaders, and Cabinet members—will be gathered. This is done to ensure that there is always someone available to assume the reins of government if all the other officers are killed at the event.
Perdue was taken to a secure location several hours beforehand, and remained there throughout the event. Although any cabinet secretary could be selected, the person appointed has usually come from one of the newer departments low in the line of succession. The act has been widely criticized over the years as unconstitutional. There are concerns regarding the constitutionality of having members of Congress in the line of succession.
Constitutional scholars from James Madison to the present day have argued that the term "Officer" refers to an " Officer of the United States ," a term of art that excludes members of Congress. During a September joint hearing Before the U. Miller Baker said:. The Act is probably unconstitutional because it appears that the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate are not "Officers" eligible to act as President within the meaning of the Succession Clause.
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These are the "Officers" to whom the Succession Clause probably refers. This contextual reading is confirmed by Madison's notes from the Constitutional Convention, which reveal that the Convention's Committee of Style, which had no authority to make substantive changes, substituted "Officer" in the Succession Clause in place of "Officer of the United States," probably because the Committee considered the full phrase redundant.
House or Senate—as evidence that members of the Congress cannot be in the Presidential line of succession.
The Second Amendment deals with the right to bear arms.
The Act is also controversial because it provides that an officer who is acting as President due to the disability or failure to qualify of an officer higher in the order of succession does so only until the other officer's disability or disqualification is removed. If happens, the previously entitled officer can "bump" the person then acting as President. House subcommittee , Akhil Reed Amar stated that this provision violates "the Succession Clause, which says that an officer named by Congress shall 'act as President In its report, the Continuity of Government Commission argued that as well as going against the language of the Constitution, bumping violates the doctrine of separation of powers by undermining the independence of the executive from the Congress:.
The Constitution on its face seems to stipulate that once a person is deemed to be acting president by the Presidential Succession Act, he or she cannot be replaced by a different person. This interpretation makes some logical sense as the provision would presumably prevent the confusion that would arise if the presidency were transferred to several different individuals in a short period of time.
It would also seemingly prevent Congress from exercising influence on the executive branch by threatening to replace a cabinet member acting as president with a newly elected Speaker of the House. On a practical level, it is argued that this provision could result in there being multiple legitimate presidents in a short period of time during a national crisis and weaken the public legitimacy of successors. In a time of national crisis, the nation needs to know who its president is.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Type of law regarding the order of succession to United States president.
Presidential Succession – Constitution Article 2 §1.6
Introduced in the Senate as S. Truman on July 18, [24]. The individual with the majority of votes became President, and the runner-up became Vice President. John Tyler was the only president pro tempore to become president and James K. Polk the only Speaker. US Legal System. Retrieved July 3, The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved July 16, September 27, CRS Report for Congress. Washington, D. August 5, Retrieved June 16, Retrieved July 18, Hofstra Law Review. Retrieved July 8, Retrieved July 4, John Tyler: the accidental president. University of North Carolina Press.
March 22, Faculty Scholarship Series. Paper Retrieved July 11, Retrieved June 30, Retrieved July 12, Retrieved April 24, Harvard Law Review. Retrieved July 14, — via Internet Archive. Link and William M. Leary Jr. Schlesinger, and Gil Troy. History of American Presidential Elections, New York: Facts on File, Inc, October 22, Political theory and practice: Thinking and doing.
The University of Sydney, Australia. Retrieved June 20, Editorial research reports Vol. If the Republican ticket had been elected in , the plan of succession adopted in would probably have come into operation for the first time in March 1, History News Network. Retrieved July 13, June 19, Online by Gerhard Peters and John T.
Woolley, The American Presidency Project. Retrieved June 18, Cox Media Group. Retrieved July 9, June 29, Preserving Our Institutions. June Archived from the original PDF on March 4, Retrieved May 23, — via WebCite. Fordham Law Review.
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Retrieved July 10, The National Security Act of ". The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President.
But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representatives from each State having one Vote; a quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.
Presidential Succession Act - Wikipedia
The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States. No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.