Law Commons^™

Talking Trump And The Twenty-Fifth Amendment: Correcting The Record On Section 4, Joel K. Goldstein

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The first year of the presidency of Donald J. Trump brought attention to Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the constitutional provision that allows the Vice President and a Cabinet majority to transfer presidential powers and duties from a President who is “unable to discharge the powers and duties” of his office. Although the ensuing media discussion included many thoughtful contributions, it also produced many mistaken assertions by scholars, journalists and other commentators regarding the importance, scope, operation, and effect of Section 4. These mistakes are troubling because they may produce enduring misunderstanding regarding a provision designed to handle some …

The Bipartisan Bayh Amendment: Republican Contributions To The Twenty-Fifth Amendment, Joel K. Goldstein

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It is appropriate that Senator Birch Bayh has been widely recognized as the author and person most responsible for the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. His work was indispensable, and he was helped by other Democrats and nonpartisan actors including the American Bar Association and John D. Feerick, among others. Yet the Amendment was also the product of bipartisan cooperation. Important provisions were based on work done during the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Eisenhower and his Attorney General, Herbert Brownell, played important roles in supporting Bayh’s proposal as did other Republicans in and out of Congress. Republicans like Representative Richard …

Choosing Justices: How Presidents Decide, Joel K. Goldstein

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Presidents play the critical role in determining who will serve as justices on the Supreme Court and their decisions inevitably influence constitutional doctrine and judicial behavior long after their terms have ended. Notwithstanding the impact of these selections, scholars have focused relatively little attention on how presidents decide who to nominate. This article contributes to the literature in the area by advancing three arguments. First, it adopts an intermediate course between the works which tend to treat the subject historically without identifying recurring patterns and those which try to reduce the process to empirical formulas which inevitably obscure considerations shaping …

Taking From The Twenty-Fifth Amendment: Lessons In Ensuring Presidential Continuity, Joel K. Goldstein

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Although some have criticized the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution for leaving gaps in America’s provisions for addressing presidential succession and inability, such complaints are misguided. The Amendment represented a major step forward by providing sensible and workable procedures to remedy some of the most glaring problems the nation faced. Its architects recognized the remaining gaps but realized that advancing a more comprehensive measure would preclude any progress. Nonetheless, remaining gaps present an unacceptable risk that the United States will find itself without a functioning President whose exercise of presidential powers and duties is seen as legitimate. What …

Cheney, Vice Presidential Power And The War On Terror, Joel K. Goldstein

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It is generally conceded that Vice President Cheney has been our most influential vice president. During his two terms, the office assumed a significance which his predecessors, even those who themselves were quite significant, would not have thought possible. Whereas historically the vice presidency had been dismissed as too feeble, the Cheney vice presidency was attacked as too robust.

The unprecedented power of Cheney as vice president had many sources. One of them was the war on terror. It, of course, assumed an unexpected prominence after 9/11, and the war on terror contributed to Cheney’s ascendance and provided the political …

Introduction, Joel K. Goldstein

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This issue of the Saint Louis University Law Journal traces, in some sense, to two events that occurred a quarter century ago. On February 6, 1977, Richard J. Childress, professor and former dean, of Saint Louis University School of Law died at the age of fifty-five. Barely seventeen days earlier, President Jimmy Carter had pledged an “absolute” commitment to human rights in his inaugural address and called for “international policies which reflect our own most precious values.”[1] Later that spring, President Carter called for “a new American foreign policy—a policy based on constant decency in its values and on optimism …

Can The Vice President Preside At His Own Impeachment Trial?: A Critique Of Bare Textualism, Joel K. Goldstein

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Turn the clock back for a moment to August 1973. In the midst of the burgeoning Watergate scandal, the nation discovered that Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was being investigated for allegedly accepting bribes from contractors, and for committing tax fraud while Governor of Maryland and Vice President. The investigation, by attorneys in the United States Attorneys Office in Maryland, ultimately gathered sufficient evidence to present to a grand jury. To avoid the spectre of likely indictment and prosecution, Agnew elected to resign his office and plead nolo contendere.[1]

But suppose Agnew had decided not to go quietly.[2] Instead of …