Unthinkable-Hey Lew!

[YoSam]

Just a constitutional question here.

We know that one of the two LOSERS will be the next president-elect.

This ain't in the Constitution but what would happen if old age caught up w/ Johnny Mac or something else caught up w/ O Hussein B between the November election and January 20th? I don't believe that they could Constitutionally give the job to the VP-elect, as whoever that might be would not have been sworn in yet either.

My take would be that there would be an emergency session of the Supreme Court and that the 3rd in succession to the presidency would be sworn in on January 20th.

Dare I even utter the phrase??!!

President Pelosi?

[Beachcomber]

If Bush really , truly cared about the GOP he would have resigned and Cheney would have resigned 6 months ago. By November Pelosi would have messed up everything so much worse, Obama wouldn't have a chance..

[Lew]

Y/S-

without having done any research on this issue, my gut feeling is you're correct, i.e. the third in succession would take over. The real question would be, could a special election be called for 2009? This is interesting, let me take a peek through some of my old constitutional law materials and see if it's addressed anywhere...

[LanDroid]

That didn't sound right to me at all... The 20th amendment covers it...

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitut...endmentxx.html

Seems clear cut after the Electoral College votes, but a little crazy if he dies before that vote.

<font color="#CC6600" size="1">[ July 15, 2008 06:15 AM: Message edited by: LanDroid ]</font>

[YoSam]

Those pesky subsequent ammendments.
When does the Electoral College vote?

[Lew]

Lan beat me to the punch, my early research led to a similar article. But I haven't had time to follow-up (I do think it's a fascinating issue) and, at least so far, it doesn't answer the question what happens after the general election but before the electoral college votes (I thought their voting was due in mid-December but I could be wrong about that). And Yo Sam did refer to the "VP-elect" but the 20th amendment does address that and, really, I don't have a problem with that.

But assume the worst here- somehow, both the President-Elect and VP-elect die before the electoral college. Like I said, I want to read more into this but as I'm reading the 20th Amendment (and LanD if you think otherwise by all means expound) there is a problem once the current President's term in office expires. I see no timeframe in the 20th amendment for the next election, but obviously no one is going to wait 4 more years. Obviously, if this were to occur, the Supreme Court would be bombarded with lawsuit-city , in which case they really would be deciding the Presidency, even though that's clearly not in their mandate (although let's not kid ourselves, some would argue they've been acting outside their mandate since Marbury v. Madison).

[LanDroid]

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.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I can't decipher that sentence from the XX Amendment, but if both the President elect and VP elect died before inauguration, it looks like the Legislative branch would choose our leaders. [img]eek.gif[/img]

[YoSam]

Originally posted by LanDroid:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">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.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I can't decipher that sentence from the XX Amendment, but if both the President elect and VP elect died before inauguration, it looks like the Legislative branch would choose our leaders. [img]eek.gif[/img] </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Can you say Nancy Pelosi?

[img]graemlins/grrr.gif[/img]

[Beachcomber]

I would rather see Hillary as POTUS than Pelosi. I would prefer Hillary over Obama. At least she is 100% American even if I don't agree with some of her thinking.