You may be aware that new elected U.S.presidentstake office staff sometime in January — perhaps you even know the inaugural occurs on January 20 , specifically . What you might not gain is that it ’s technically illegal for a president who’sleaving officeto proceed serving after that particular date . As the Twentieth Amendmentstates , “ the terms of the President and Vice President shall terminate at twelve noon on the twentieth day of January … and the terms of their successors shall then begin . ”
In other word , a presidential terminal figure is exactly four years long , down to the hr . In the three cases where January 20 hang on a Sunday ( since the 20th Amendment went into effect ) , the presidenttookthe oath of role in a private observance on that Clarence Day , and the public inauguration was held the following day .
Though the four - yr term limit has been in the Constitution from thevery beginning , January 20 was n’t always the outset and end engagement . Until 1933 , it was March 4 . After the Constitutional Convention adopted the Constitution in September 1788 , the old governing — the Confederation Congress — quit operation on March 4 , 1789 and the Congress of the United States start running thing . get up to pep pill took a little longer than expected , andGeorge Washingtondidn’t finish up getting sworn in until April 30 . As Binghamton University history professor and provost Donald Niemanwrotefor The Conversation , March 4 became the officialInauguration Daystarting with Washington ’s 2d term .
By the former twentieth century , the long delay between official winning an election and really starting the job was causing offspring — mostly in Congress . Members of Congress wereelectedin November , but their first school term did n’t start until the fall out December , a whole 13 months later . what is more , their second school term , which started the December after that , could only last until their terms ended on March 4 . So , in the 1930s , Congress passed the 20th Amendment , declaring that congressional terms would start and end on January 3 , about two months after the election .
The chairman ’s inaugural 24-hour interval got shifted to January , too , and the amendment also explained what would bechance if a president had n’t been chosen by that date . The ride United States President would n’t just stay in office by nonpayment — or else , Congress could either appoint someone to serve in the interim , or it could determine on another style to pick out someone . That person would serve “ until a President or Vice prexy shall have qualify . ” Since that ’s never befall before , we do n’t make out precisely what the process would look like .
As for what the prexy really does during their last day in function , it ’s not all foresightful lunches and slothful walk around the well - keptWhite Housegrounds . There are normally plenty of eleventh - hourpardonsto make , and it ’s traditional for the president to pen a missive to their successor . PresidentBarack Obamaalso ship a heartfeltemailto his whole White House stave , thanking them for their years of support and advance them to continue working to maintain democracy .
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A interpretation of this report originally run away in 2020 ; it has been update for 2024 .
