What would happen if a president-elect refused to say the oath of office? Would the vice president-elect become president?
Who would it go to exactly?
I would presume that, being ineligible for President by dint of not taking the Oath, the Veep would be offered it instead.
I think the VP would act as president until and unless the president chose to take the oath. The 20th Amendment says “If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified.”
It wouldn’t matter. From the Wiki article on David Atchison, who was president for a day,. “the Constitution doesn’t require the President-elect to take the oath of office to hold the office, just to execute the powers”. Which would legitimize Zachary Taylor’s presidency on that Sunday that he refused to be sworn in.
Whatever happened on that day, Atchison was definitely never President. You can argue that Taylor was President, you can argue that the Presidency was vacant for that day, you can even argue (though incorrectly) that it was still Polk. But there’s no logical position that results in an Atchison presidency.
The key question is whether taking the oath is necessary to becoming President. If it is not necessary, then Taylor became President, and thus Atchison didn’t. If it is necessary, then Atchison still didn’t become President, because he didn’t take the oath, either.
The President-elect becomes President regardless of whether he takes the oath or not. The oath is only necessary prior to his executing the powers and duties of his office. The VP would not become president or acting president or anything other than VP. You would end up with a figurehead president who is unable to act.
If the president refused to take the oath, then the Congress would have a very good case for dereliction of duty or some other offense worthy of impeachment and removal. After that process, the VP would become president.
Franklin Pierce declined to take the oath; he took an affirmation as is allowed by the Constitution.
Or is that splitting too fine a hair?
Didn’t CNN or some news network point out on Inauguration 2009 that, at the stroke of noon, Obama was president, regardless of whether the oath had been administered yet or not? (things were a bit delayed IIRC)
So it sounds like the oath is just ceremonial with no actual legal impact.
No, it does have a legal impact: without the oath, the President cannot execute presidential duties. So the President takes office, but cannot actually do anything.
Please don’t do this to me. I was avoiding the news, and this made my heart skip a beat.