There was a story in Politico yesterday that just tickled me, and showed that once again President Trump should take a remedial class in the Constitution. Or someone in his Administration should. It’s also a strong reminder of the Rule of Unintended Consequences.
If there is no election in November, Mr. Trump’s term of office still expires on January 20, 2021. So does the term of Vice President Pence. They’re both out.
In theory, the DC Police could arrest Mr. Trump as a trespasser in the White House on that date.
If there is no election in November, there will be no House of Representatives as of January 3, 2020. So the current Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, will not be in the Presidential Line of Succession. Her previous term expired.
That leaves the Senate as the only body (aside from the Supreme Court) as a functioning organ of government at the Federal level. Remember, only one-third of that chamber is up for election in any given election cycle. Remember, 23 Republicans are up for election in 2020, but only 12 Democrats are. If there is no election, all of their terms expire.
That leaves 68 Senators milling about. Under Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution, the Vice President is the President of the Senate. The Senate appoints a President Pro Tempore to act in the absence of the Vice President.
By tradition, the majority party in the Senate selects the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. While the current President Pro Tem of the Senate is Charles Grassley of Iowa, the Senate in January would have a Democratic majority. The senior Democratic Senator is Patrick Leahy, the senior senator from Vermont.
Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, the President Pro Tem of the Senate is fourth in line to rise to the Presidency in the event the other three are unable or ineligible to serve.
This is not new news: the Burlington Vermont Free Press had a story about this possibility back in March. But as things keep getting weirder, the accession of President Leahy becomes a distinct possibility.
Pat Leahy first entered the Senate in the first Post-Watergate Congress in 1975. He could leave the Senate as our 46th President of the United States by Constitutional default.
What a career arc!