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91 Fordham L. Rev. Online 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/resgest13 and id is 1 raw text is: OPENING ADDRESS John D. Feerick* The program today is both unique and timely in its focus on presidential line of succession scenarios. As you know, if a president were to die, resign, or be removed after an impeachment trial, the vice president would become president, as made clear by Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution's Twenty-Fifth Amendment, which codified historical precedents.i Article II of the Constitution provides that Congress may provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, and inability of both a president and vice president.2 Congress exercised this power in Article II during the presidency of Harry Truman. He signed into law on July 17, 1947, the Presidential Succession Act,3 which is the subject of this program. Concerns have been raised about the statute's adequacy at this time in history, and proposals have been advanced to change it. September 11, 2001, and the tragedies of that day, and the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol are reminders of the importance of having safeguards in place to deal with the unexpected. November 22, 1963, set a precedent and benchmark as the country joined as one upon the tragic death of President John F. Kennedy. From the time he took the presidential oath of office in the executive chamber of an airplane ninety minutes after the shooting, Vice President Lyndon Johnson made clear that stability was essential and that it was not a time for uncertainty and confusion. I began my study of presidential succession a few years before this tragedy, influenced by the several disabilities President Dwight Eisenhower experienced in office. I threw myself into examining our executive succession foundations as they then appeared in the Constitution. There was hardly a month that went by when I did not spend time in the New York City Public Library researching the succession arrangements from colonial America and the early state constitutions that would have shaped the thinking of the Framers of the Constitution when they met in Philadelphia in 1787. I took some inspiration during this work from Cicero, who said, if no use is * Dean Emeritus and Sidney C. Norris Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law. These remarks were delivered as part of the program entitled The Presidential Succession Act at 75: Praise It or Bury It?, which was held on April 6, 2022, and hosted by the Fordham University School of Law. This transcript has been edited, primarily to conform with the Fordham Law Review's publication requirements, and represents the speaker's individual views alone. 1. See U.S. CONST. amend. XXV, § 1. 2. U.S. CONST. art. II, § 1, cl. 6. 3. 3 U.S.C. § 19. 1

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