Lame-Duck Amendment

LAME-DUCK AMENDMENT

LAME-DUCK AMENDMENT, the name applied to the Twentieth Amendment (1933) to the U.S. Constitution, abolished so-called lame-duck sessions of Congress, which were held from December of even-numbered years until the following 4 March. These sessions acquired their nickname because they included numerous members who had been defeated (the lame ducks) in elections held a month before the session opened. The law permitted them to sit and function until their terms ended in March, while a newly elected Congress, with a fresh popular mandate, stood by inactive and unorganized. Newly elected members usually had to wait thirteen months to take office, because the lame-duck sessions lasted only three months, and Congress did not reconvene until the following December. In the last lame-duck session, which opened in December 1932, 158 defeated members sat in the Senate and House. The amendment, sponsored by Sen. George W. Norris of Nebraska, did away with the lame-duck session by moving back the day on which terms of senators and representatives begin from 4 March to 3 January, and by requiring Congress to convene each year on January 3—about two months after election. The amendment also set back the date of the president's and the vice-president's inauguration from March to 20 January. Other provisions relate to the choice of president under certain contingencies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anastaplo, George. The Amendments to the Constitution: A Commentary. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

P. Orman Ray / c. p.

See also Constitution of the United States .