CDR: Re: Re: A successful lawsuit means Gore wins!

[Bill Stewart]

At 03:24 PM 11/10/00 -0600, Jim Choate wrote:
>
>On Fri, 10 Nov 2000, Trei, Peter wrote:
>> This is covered by the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. See
>> http://www.greatsource.com/amgov/almanac/documents/key/1947_psa_1.html
>
>Actualy it isn't. It's covered by the 20th amendment, section 3.

The 20th Amendment was ratified in 1933.  Therefore the 1947 law
implements the " Congress may by law provide for the case" part of the 20th.
(Unfortunately, the Postmaster General is fairly high up the list :-)
The 20th does say that Congress can do whatever they want about it,
so they could easily supersede the 1947 act.  Anyway, Al Haig's in charge.

>Looks to me like Congress could leave Bill in office until this mess is
>over. Like I said, is this a new way to win a 3rd term?

By the 23rd Amendment ("FDR Reoccurrance Prevention Amendment"),
he can't be _elected_ to win a 3rd term - but that doesn't mean he
can't be appointed, though ....   What a bad idea that would be....

In general, the 23rd trumps previous amendments, as any newer law
supersedes the older one, but it's not clear there's a conflict.

				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart at pobox.com
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