Together with the Vice President
Introduction
For over 200 years, the United States has seen the peaceful transfer of power from one freely elected President to another. The Constitution provides an orderly process for the selection of the President through Electoral College vote, as well through procedures for Presidential succession. Several times in our history, individuals have assumed the office of President without being elected to that office, following the death or resignation of the President.
Lesson: The Election of 1860
The Issues Endure
The question of whether states should be able to oppose the federal government's acts as unconstitutional has been debated in several important documents. Have students summarize the arguments about how states should be able to judge the constitutionality of federal government actions in the following documents: Report and Resolutions of the Hartford Convention; Virginia Resolutions; Kentucky Resolutions; South Carolina Exposition and Protest; South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification. Students should also look for more contemporary resolutions of this nature, passed some states in response to proposed national healthcare legislation.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 - Find it in the Constitution
"In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected."
Twenty-Second Amendment (1951) - Find it on ConstitutionBee.org
No one can be elected president more than two times. Anyone who has held the office of president (for example, if the previous president died in office) for more than two years can only be elected for one more term.
Twenty-Fifth Amendment (1968) - Find it on ConstitutionBee.org
This amendment specifies procedures if the president dies in office, resigns, or is unable to carry out his duties.
Richard Nixon - Find it on ConstitutionBee.org
A few months after his decisive reelection victory in 1972, the "Watergate Scandal" began to plague Nixon's administration. Burglars were caught trying to place listening devices at the National Democratic Party headquarters. Their arrests lead to discoveries that administration officials had been involved in unethical activities designed to sabotage Democratic candidates, and then conspired to cover it up. Nixon denied personal knowledge or involvement, but White House tape recordings revealed he had known about and approved the cover up. The Supreme Court held that the President did not have the power to withhold the tapes from investigators upon claim of "executive privilege" in the case United States v. Nixon (1974). Facing probable impeachment, Nixon resigned the presidency in August 1974.
In his later years, Nixon published books on his experiences with public service and foreign policy, gaining a reputation as an elder statesman.
Want to learn more?
The resources contained on the ArticleII.org website are just the beginning! The Bill of Rights Institute curriculum, Presidents and the Constitution, explores how various presidents understood and exercised their constitutional powers. By exploring constitutional crises in American history, these interactive, hands-on lessons encourage students to analyze the actions of Presidents in light of the Constitution.
Students will engage with:
▪ 15 ready-to-use, interactive lesson plans
▪ Strong focus on primary source activities
▪ Solid content including historical narrative in each lesson
▪ Scholarly thematic essays that introduce each unit
▪ Contemporary application highlighted with an “Issues Endure” portal in each unit
John Quincy Adams 1
John Quincy Adams's mother, Abigail Adams, is famous for telling her husband John Adams to "remember the ladies" in framing the US government. John Quincy was...
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