Fordham Law Review Volume 86 Issue 3 Article 3 2017 Fifty Years After the Twenty-Fifth Amendment: Recommendations for Improving the Presidential Succession System Second Fordham University School of Law Clinic on Presidential Succession Fordham University School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr Recommended Citation Second Fordham University School of Law Clinic on Presidential Succession, Fifty Years After the Twenty- Fifth Amendment: Recommendations for Improving the Presidential Succession System, 86 Fordham L. Rev. 917 (2017). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol86/iss3/3 This Report is brought to you for free and open access by FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Law Review by an authorized editor of FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Fifty Years After the Twenty-Fifth Amendment: Recommendations for Improving the Presidential Succession System Erratum Law; Constitutional Law; Law and Politics; Law and Society; Legal History; President/Executive Department; Legislation This report is available in Fordham Law Review: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol86/iss3/3 REPORT FIFTY YEARS AFTER THE TWENTY-FIFTH AMENDMENT: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING THE PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION SYSTEM Second Fordham University School of Law Clinic on Presidential Succession* ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................ 921 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 922 I. OVERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION SYSTEM ..................... 925 A. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment ................................................... 925 B. Defining Inability in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment .................. 928 1. Inability in Section 3 .......................................................... 928 2. Inability in Section 4 .......................................................... 929 II. EXECUTIVE BRANCH CONTINGENCY PLANNING ................................. 929 A. Prospective Declarations .......................................................... 930 1. The Need for Prospective Declarations ............................. 931 2. Prospective Declarations as Part of White House Contingency Planning ....................................................... 933 3. How Prospective Declarations Would Work ..................... 934 4. Legal Basis for Prospective Declarations .......................... 935 B. Providing for Mental Healthcare in the White House .............. 937 * The Second Fordham University School of Law Clinic on Presidential Succession developed this seminal Report to continue the discussion around presidential disability and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. The Clinic’s fourteen students developed this Report under the supervision of Dean John D. Feerick and Professor John G. Rogan. Professor Rogan edited the Report. The Clinic students are Naomi Babu, Jonathan Coppola, Timothy Deal, Morgan Green, Gareth Horell, Marcella Jayne, Nicole Manganiello, Edgar Mendoza, Nikole Devaris Morgulis, Alison Park, Bronwyn Roantree, Ryan Surujnath, Javed Yunus, and Kaitlyn Zacharias. The students presented the Clinic’s recommendations at the symposium entitled Continuity in the Presidency: Gaps and Solutions held at Fordham University School of Law on September 27, 2017. For an overview of the symposium, see Matthew Diller, Foreword: Continuity in the Presidency: Gaps and Solutions, 86 FORDHAM L. REV. 911 (2017). For a video recording of the panel, see Continuity in the Presidency: Gaps and Solutions—Building on the Legacy of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, Part 2, FORDHAM L. ARCHIVE SCHOLARSHIP & HIST. (Sept. 27, 2017), http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/twentyfifth_amendment_photos/11/ [https://perma.cc/JR2C-W587]. 917 918 FORDHAM LAW REVIEW [Vol. 86 1. Mental Illnesses and Impairments in Presidents ................ 938 2. Monitoring and Treating Mental Illness in the White House ................................................................................ 940 3. Discussion of Recommendations ....................................... 943 III. THE LINE OF SUCCESSION .................................................................. 944 A. History and Current Line of Succession Statute ....................... 945 B. Problems with the Composition of the Line of Succession ....... 946 1. Problems Posed by Legislators in the Line of Succession . 946 a. Preparedness of Legislators ......................................... 946 b. Perverse Incentives ...................................................... 947 c. Party Continuity ........................................................... 948 d. Democratic Legitimacy ................................................ 948 e. Questionable Constitutionality ..................................... 949 f. The Bumping Provision ................................................. 949 2. Qualifications of Cabinet Members in the Line of Succession ......................................................................... 950 3. Geographic Vulnerability ................................................... 951 C. Recommended Composition of the Line of Succession ............. 952 1. Standing Successors ........................................................... 952 2. Alternatives to Removing Legislators ................................ 954 a. Remove Legislators from the Line of Succession in Cases of Temporary Disability or Removal from Office .......................................................................... 954 b. Reorder Legislators to the End of the Line of Succession ................................................................... 954 c. Remove the Bumping Provision ................................... 954 D. Other Line of Succession Reforms ............................................ 954 1. Statutory Ambiguity About Acting Secretaries ................. 954 2. Inauguration Day Vulnerability ......................................... 956 3. Preparing for Succession .................................................... 958 IV. DUAL AND VICE PRESIDENTIAL INABILITY........................................ 958 A. Proposed Statute for Dual Inability .......................................... 959 B. Constitutional and Practical Justification for Dual Inability Statute ..................................................................................... 962 1. Constitutional Basis ........................................................... 962 a. The Succession Clause ................................................. 962 b. The Necessary and Proper Clause ............................... 963 2. Practical Basis: The Contingent Grant-of-Power Theory and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment .................................... 963 C. Proposed Statute for Vice Presidential Inability ...................... 964 1. Constitutional Basis ........................................................... 966 a. The Succession Clause ................................................. 966 b. Executive Continuity Principle .................................... 966 2017] IMPROVING PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION 919 c. Necessary and Proper Clause ...................................... 967 2. Precedential Authority ....................................................... 968 3. Alternatives ........................................................................ 968 a. Prospective Declarations of Inability and Resignation ................................................................. 969 b. Impeachment ................................................................ 969 c. Alternative Parties ........................................................ 970 V. CONGRESS’S ROLE UNDER SECTION 4 OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH AMENDMENT .................................................................................. 971 A. Guiding Principles .................................................................... 972 1. Informed Deliberations ...................................................... 972 2. Urgency and Efficiency ..................................................... 972 3. Democratic and Procedural Legitimacy ............................. 973 4. Fairness to the President .................................................... 973 5. “Constitutional Morality” and Deterring Partisanship ....... 973 B. Recommendation for a Congressional Procedure Under Section 4 .................................................................................. 974 1. Format of the Proceedings ................................................. 974 a. Proposal for a Joint Committee ................................... 974 b. Justifications for a Bipartisan Joint Committee Established from the Senate Rules and House Judiciary Committees ................................................. 975 2. Expedited Procedures for the Committee’s Work and for Consideration in Both Houses ........................................... 977 3. Subpoena Powers ............................................................... 978 4. Due Process to the President .............................................. 979 5. Information and Publicity .................................................. 979 C. Legal Issues .............................................................................. 981 1. Privileges ........................................................................... 981 a. Overriding Executive Privilege