The Twentieth Amendment

For nearly 150 years, presidents were inaugurated on March 4. The lag between election day in early November and inauguration in March was a vestige of the eighteenth century, when ballots had to be tabulated by hand and the President-elect had to travel to Washington by horse or coach. By the early twentieth century, the gap had become a serious problem. A defeated president and Congress, often called the lame duck, held office for four months after the election. During the long winter of 1932 and 1933, with the country in the depths of the Great Depression, the lame duck Hoover administration could do little and the incoming Roosevelt administration could do nothing.

Senator George Norris of Nebraska had been pushing a lame duck amendment for years. The Depression provided the political momentum to finish the work. The Twentieth Amendment was proposed by Congress in March 1932 and ratified in January 1933. It moved the start of presidential and vice presidential terms to January 20 and the start of congressional terms to January 3. It addressed several other matters as well. If the President-elect dies before taking office, the Vice President-elect becomes President. If no candidate has been chosen by the time the term is to begin, the Vice President-elect acts as President until one is chosen. Congress is empowered to address the case where the House of Representatives must select a President under the Twelfth Amendment and the chosen person dies.

The practical effect has been to shorten the transition between administrations. The first inauguration under the new schedule was Franklin Roosevelt's second, on January 20, 1937. Every subsequent presidential inauguration has occurred on that date. The amendment also reduced the dead weight of the lame duck Congress, though "lame duck sessions" still occur between the November election and the new Congress's January start. Like much of the constitutional machinery of presidential succession, the amendment was written to fill gaps the founders had not anticipated. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment, ratified in 1967, would later address presidential disability and vice presidential vacancy in similar fashion.