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What Would Happen If There Were a Disaster At the Inauguration?: A Potential Flaw in the Rules of Succession

I often worry about disasters. I am not sure why. I think I am an optimist. On the other hand, Lawyers are planners and one of the things Mrs. Lawyer Dude always compliments me on is that I usually see things happening down the road and I always have a contingency plan. Hence I have been thinking a lot about Inauguration day. I mean it is going to be the most historical one in the last century. It is also going to stir up a lot of idiot people who have an ax to grind, or think they do. Further, we always have those cave dwelling morons from Al Qaeda , looking for a reason to blow our big party. It occurred to me that everybody who is anybody is going to want to (and probably can) be there, on the podium. I mean we will see the Pres. The Pres-elect, VP and VP elect, Chief Justice and presumably the entire Supreme Court, the Speaker of the House and the Minority Leader as well as the Senate Majority and Minority leaders and a host of Senators and Congressmen and Cabinet members. So, who will be watching the store and what happens if the worst happens and all these people are unable to serve for a while.

OK Before you all get on me for being a damp cloth, the guys and gals over at the Wall Street Journal "Law Blog"have been wondering about this stuff too.Their post "President Condoleezza Rice" explains how the title could come true. They however are smarter than me, cause they have some potential answers. The real answer seems to be however, that if a Bush Cabinet Member survives, and President-Elect Obama is not inaugurated, the Bushie is President for the next four years. That would thwart the Will of the People it seems. It is a good thing lawyer types like me worry about things like this.

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Kennedy Inauguration Picture above provided by Wikipedia under a Common License.

Full post as published by That Lawyer Dude on November 15, 2008 (boomark / email).