I just saw on the news that Obama is scheduled to take to oath of office at 11:56 a.m. on Tuesday. (The same time is listed at this site, which seems to be an official Washington DC tourist thing.)
My understanding is that according to the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the President-Elect will become President at noon, and that this occurs whether he has taken the Oath Of Office or not.
If I am correct in the above, then I do not understand why he is sworn in before noon, instead of afterward. When he finishes the oath, there will surely be a lot of cheering and applause. But he won’t be President yet, not for another minute or so. Wouldn’t it make more sense to become President, and THEN get sworn in?
(Is it possible that it takes longer than four minutes to say the oath? If that’s what happens, then I guess that will answer my question, because as long as he finishes it by 12:00:01 PM, then all is okay by me. I guess we’ll see in a few hours.)
As has been touched on in other threads, it’s because Article II of the original Constitution, in a passage not superseded by amendment, requires that the person becoming President take the oath (text prescribed in the Constitution, yet!) before he enters on the exercise of his office. While it’s highly improbable that, if at 12:01 someone brings the alert, “Mr. President, we’ve just got word that four flights of fighter-bombers claiming to be attacking on orders from Usama bin Laden are on headings that will take them to New York City, Washington, Omaha, and Disney World,” and he orders “Scramble planes and launch interceptor missiles to stop them,” the Commanding General of the Air Force would say, “Nuh uh, you ain’t taken the Oath yet,” nonetheless it’s lways been custom to execute the oath immediately on taking office (with a few selected exceptions mentioned in those other threads).
The assumption is, you don’t have to be president yet to take the oath (though a non-president taking it would have no effect), but as a constitutional nicety, you can’t (or shouldn’t) act as president before taking the oath. So, being elected, you take it at the Inauguration a few minutes before you officially take office by the clock.
The “external links” section of this Wikipedia article pointed me to this YouTube video, which is a collection of twelve swearings-in of presidents from FDR to Bush43. The latter eleven oaths vary in length between 26 and 41 seconds, including the prompting by the Chief Justice (or whoever) and also including the optional “So help me God” at the end. FDR’s was only 19 seconds because he said it unprompted.
(BTW, at 5:50 in that video, you can clearly hear James Earl Carter say, “I, Jimmy Carter…”)
If taking the oath prior to noon was such a simple idea, Zachary Taylor (who did not want his inauguration to be on Sunday, his Sabbath) would have moved it early to Saturday, instead of delaying it to Monday (thus creating the Urban Legend that David Rice Atchison was President for that one day.
Do you have authority for that statement? Because the Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution says nothing about when a President’s term starts; it says when a President’s term ends. At noon today, George W. Bush will no longer be the President of the United States.
Until he takes the oath of office, Barack Obama is not President of the United States. Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution says clearly:
. Until that time, whoever is properly considered the acting President has the power of the presidency.
The reason David Rice Atchison was not “President” did not have anything to do with Zachary Taylor being “President” even before having sworn the oath. It was because Atchison was himself disqualified from being considered “President” because he himself had not yet taken the Oath of office for an incoming Senator.
Further, we must distinguish the concept of “acting” President from “President.” Until he was sworn in on the jet, Lyndon B. Johnson was not the President of the United States. However, from the moment that President Kennedy was dead, if not prior to that when rendered unconscious, Johnson was the acting President.
Of course, they have since (1967) formalized all this with an amendment that discusses exactly how you become an “acting” President. Still, if it came to it, I have no doubt that the power of the Presidency would devolve immediately to the Vice-President as needed in a crisis.
But unless you have some authority that states that the person who is elected to the office of President has the ability to act as President prior to taking the Oath, I would say that the Constitution answers your question for you.
As I watch the tv, and Aretha Franklin is just now starting to sing, and Biden was supposed to be sworn in 9 minutes ago, the answer to the OP is becoming painfully obvious:
They were hoping to be no more than 4 minutes behind schedule. They lost that bet. Obama is NOT going to be sworn in before noon.
And Katie Couric (I was at a large gathering hosted by CBS) specifically said at 12:05 in the middle of the musical interlude (WTF?) that technically Joe Biden was President at that moment, since he had taken the oath and Obama had not.
NPR interrupted the Williams’ piece at 12:04 to mention that Obama was now president, even though he hadn’t yet taken the oath. Why they felt they had to interrupt Perlman, Ma and Co. I don’t understand, but there you are.
A question: Doesn’t the Twentieth Amendment address the question of when the new President’s term begins? From the Wikipedia article on the Twentieth Amendment given in the original post:
Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
I think it is VERY significant that immediately prior to administering the oath, Chief Justice Roberts (who is arguably a greater authority on these things than any of us, not counting Uncle Cecil) asked Obama, “Are you prepared to take the oath, Senator?”
:eek: ???SENATOR??? :eek:
Seems that the Chief Justice still considered him not-yet-President!
