Word: bayh
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Power & Principles. Last week the Senate finally faced up to the problem and passed (72 to 0) a proposed constitutional amendment giving Vice Presidents full power until disabled Presidents recover.* Sponsored by Indiana Democrat Birch Bayh, the amendment provides that if a President fails to make known his inability, the Vice President could take over "with the written concurrence of a majority of the Cabinet or any other body specified by Congress." If a still unrecovered President tried to return, the Acting President and the Cabinet would have seven days in which to ask Congress to "proceed to decide...
...backed proposal reaches the House it will face more of the same sort of opposition it survived in the Senate: the argument that the problem should be solved by statute rather than constitutional amendment. Critics note that statutes, unlike amendments that contain rules as specific as those in the Bayh proposal, are easily revised to meet changing needs. "The strength of the Constitution rests upon its broad statement of power and principles," says Minnesota's Democratic Senator Eugene J. McCarthy. "It is not weighed down with detailed procedural provisions...
Unfortunately, though, the Constitution does not clearly empower Congress to handle presidential disability by statute alone. Indeed, Bayh backers argue that such a statute might worsen the next disability crisis because it would be open to constitutional challenge. By contrast, an amendment becomes part of the Constitution, and Congress would have the right to pass later disability legislation if necessary...
...last name is Bayh...
After the Indiana populace heard Jamie sing that for the 22,356th time in the autumn of 1962, Birch Bayh went to Washington...