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ODUMUNC 2021 Crisis Brief Designated Survivor ODU Model United Nations Society constitutional and political disputes over the Introduction: The Succession legitimacy of the new president, and fears of 2 Problem further attack. How would a major government deal with a catastrophe that suddenly killed most of its highest leaders? In the United States, this problem is addressed through the formal succession process. When writing the current US constitution in 1787, an initial line of succession was established, going from President to Vice- President. Congress was given the power to legislate on further steps in the process, should the office of Vice-President be vacant. The current law was laid out in the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.1 This placed the Speaker of the House and Senate president pro tempore in the line of succession, followed by Cabinet secretaries. One of the lessons of 11 September 2001 was the scale of a catastrophe could surpass the imaginations of 1787 and 1947. Set in the year 2022, this simulation investigates what might happen in such circumstances today. It builds on ideas pioneered in the Netflix series ‘Designated Survivor’, written by David Guggenheim and directed by Paul McGuigan. Constitutional Issues That version, which premiered in 2016, starts after a fictional explosion destroyed the U.S. There are major concerns regarding the Capitol Building during the President’s annual constitutionality of having members of Congress State of the Union speech. A relatively lower- in the line of succession.3 These uncertainties level official, the Secretary of Housing and regarding the succession process could cause Urban Development, is the Designated Survivor, chaos if the law has to be invoked. the highest-ranking official in line to be sworn as President. Guggenheim and McGuigan The US Constitution's Succession Clause— imagined this as the first step revealing Article II, Section 1, Clause 6—specifies that controversies over the line of succession, 1 ‘United States presidential line of succession’, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/designated_survi Wikipedia, n.d., vor/s01 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_preside 3 Norman J. Ornstein, ‘It's Armageddon: Who's in ntial_line_of_succession Charge Here?’ American Enterprise Institute, 9 2 ‘Designated Survivor: Season 1 (2016 - 2017)’ February 2004, https://www.aei.org/articles/its- Rotten Tomatoes, n.d., armageddon/ Designated Survivor only an ‘Officer’ may be designated as a House and the President pro tempore of the Presidential successor:4 Senate—who are not ‘Officers’ (the word used in the US Constitution), and eligible to act as In Case of the Removal of the President from President under the Succession Clause.6 Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties The 1947 Act also is controversial because it of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on provides that an officer who is acting as the Vice President, and the Congress may by president due to the disability or failure to law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, qualify of an officer higher in the order of Resignation or Inability, both of the President succession does so only until the other officer's and Vice President, declaring what Officer disability or disqualification is removed. If this shall then act as President, and such Officer happens, the previously entitled officer can shall act accordingly, until the Disability be ‘bump’ the person then acting as president. removed, or a President shall be elected.5 Critics of the Act have argued that this provision violates ‘the Succession Clause, which says that Constitutional scholars from James Madison to an officer named by Congress shall 'act as the present day say that the term ‘Officer" refers President ... until the Disability be removed, or a to an ‘Officer of the United States’, a term that President shall be elected'.7 excludes members of Congress. Be careful… Succession is a noun meaning who or what comes next, and in what order. In a monarchy, it refers to what prince or princesses will follow the king or queen. In England, Prince Charles in next after Elizabeth II, and his eldest son, Prince William, will follow him. Secession is a noun meaning the act of seceding, or when a few states or provinces break away from the rest of the nation. Some legal experts believe the 1947 Act is Lyndon B. Johnson on board Air Force One is sworn in as unconstitutional because it elevated two officials President following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, in the line of succession-- the Speaker of the 22 November 1963 4 ‘Article Two of the United States Constitution’, 6 Jack Goldsmith and Ben Miller-Gootnick, ‘A Wikipedia, n.d., Presidential Succession Nightmare’, Lawfare, 25 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_U March 2020, nited_States_Constitution#Clause_6:_Vacancy_and_ https://www.lawfareblog.com/presidential- disability succession-nightmare ; Joel Goldstein, ‘Presidential 5 ‘Article II, Section, Clause 6,’ Constitution Succession Act of 1947’, C-Span, 6 October 2020, Annotated, n.d., https://www.c-span.org/classroom/document/?17228 https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article- 7 Brad Sherman, ‘Serious Flaws Exist in Our 2/section-1/clause-6/ Presidential Succession Laws’, Roll Call, 31 January 2011, https://sherman.house.gov/media- center/opinion-editorials/serious-flaws-exist-in-our- presidential-succession-laws 2 Designated Survivor President: Ralph Nader For example, this bumping provision could result in there being multiple acting presidents Ralph Nader (born 1934) is an American for a short period during a national crisis and it political activist, author, lecturer, lawyer, and could weaken the public legitimacy of former candidate for President of the United successors. According to Congressman Brad States, noted for his involvement in consumer Sherman, the bumping provision ‘…creates a protection, environmentalism and government game of musical chairs with the presidency and reform causes. would cause great instability. In a time of national crisis, the nation needs to know who its The son of Lebanese immigrants, Nader was president is.’8 educated at Princeton and Harvard. He first came to prominence in 1965 with the publication of the bestselling book Unsafe at Any Speed, an influential critique of the safety record of American automobile manufacturers. In the Characters 1970s, Nader established a number of advocacy and watchdog groups including the Public 1. President: Ralph Nader Interest Research Group, the Center for Auto Safety, and Public Citizen. 2. Vice President: Bernard Sanders 3. Secretary of State: Nikki Haley Nader's activism has been directly credited with 4. Chief of Staff: John Kerry the passage of several landmark pieces of 5. Secretary of Defense: Paul Nakasone American consumer protection legislation including the Clean Water Act, the Freedom of 6. Secretary of Homeland Security: Jeh Information Act, the Consumer Product Safety Johnson Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the 7. Secretary of Treasury: Lael Brainard Whistleblower Protection Act, and the National 8. Attorney General: Sally Yates Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.[citation 9. Secretary of Interior: Tom Udall needed] He has been repeatedly named to lists of the 100 Most Influential Americans, including 10. Secretary of Energy: Rick Perry those published by Life, Time, and The Atlantic. 11. Secretary of Commerce: Penny Pritzker The New York Times described him as a life- 12. Secretary of Health and Human Services: long ‘dissident"’ Joseph A. Califano Jr. 13. Speaker of the House: Joe Kennedy III Nader made four bids to become President of the United States, running with the Green Party in 14. Secretary of Agriculture : Ann Veneman 1996 and 2000, the Reform Party in 2004, and as 15. Ambassador to the UN Jonathan Cohen an independent in 2008. In each campaign, Nader said he sought to highlight under-reported Note: Character biographies show their status as issues and a perceived need for electoral reform. of 1 January 2021, but their position in 2022, at He received nearly 3 million votes during his the start of this simulation. 2000 candidacy, but also stirred controversy over allegations that his campaign helped Republican candidate George W. Bush win a close election against Democratic candidate Al Gore. 8 Ibid. 3 Designated Survivor civil rights movement. After settling in Vermont Vice President: Bernard Sanders in 1968, he ran unsuccessful third-party political campaigns in the early to mid-1970s. He was Bernard Sanders (born 1941) is an American elected mayor of Burlington in 1981 as an politician and United States senator from independent and was reelected three times. He Vermont since 2007. Before being elected to won election to the US House of Representatives Congress in 1991, he was mayor of Burlington, in 1990, representing Vermont's at-large Vermont. He is the longest-serving independent congressional district, later co-founding the in congressional history, although he has a close Congressional Progressive Caucus. He served as relationship with the Democratic Party, and a US Representative for 16 years before being caucused with House and Senate Democrats for elected to the Senate in 2006. Sanders was most of his congressional career. Sanders sought reelected to the Senate in 2012 and 2018. the Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States in 2016 and 2020, finishing in second place in both campaigns. Secretary of State: Nikki Haley An advocate of social democratic and Nikki Haley (born Nimrata Randhawa in 1972) progressive policies, Sanders is known for his is an American politician, diplomat, clothing opposition to economic inequality and executive and author who served as governor of neoliberalism. On domestic policy, he supports South Carolina from 2011 to 2017 and US labor rights, universal and single-payer ambassador to the United Nations from 2017-18. healthcare, paid parental leave, tuition-free tertiary education, and an ambitious Green New Haley was the first female governor of South Deal to create jobs addressing climate change.
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