One explanation for our 20th Amendment, ratified in 1933, is that it fixed the legislative calendar that our Founders didn’t really think through. The contrary theory is the Founders had cleverly chosen those dates to maximize the time that lawmakers, who had been voted out of office or power, could legislate based on their conscience rather than their constituents. Let me explain. Prior to 1935, the start of a newly elected government was March 4th, as set by the Confederation Congress after ratification in 1788. The terms of the President, Vice President, Senators, and Representatives all started on March 4th, yet the Constitution Article I, Section 4, Clause 2 set the annual start date for Congress to meet was December 5th. After the November election, the newly elected politicians did not assume their office until March 4th, four months later. But the new Congress did not meet until December 5th, thirteen months after their election unless a President called for Congress to convene earlier. Even more bizarre, the second annual session of Congress began the following December which was after the November election of a new Congress. This second-year, after an election became known as the “lame-duck” session. As an aside, the term “lame duck” was used in 18th century England to describe bankrupt businessmen who were considered “lame”, like a game bird injured by shot. The term was eventually adapted to describe officeholders who had a known termination date because they were either not seeking reelection, or they had been defeated. A “lame-duck” Congress had three months in their second year, from December 5 to March 4, to legislate. If those lawmakers (or party) had lost in the November election, they would not be out of power until March 4th allowing them to pass laws that served their interests and not necessarily their constituents.
Interestingly, in the first few decades of our colonial republic these problems with Congress’s session schedule were recognized and eighteen differing bills were introduced to have Congress meet sooner than December of the following year, but this would also lengthen the duration of the lame-duck session. By the 1920s, over seventy different constitutional amendments had been introduced, but nothing passed. It wasn’t until President Warren Harding attempted to sneak a merchant ship subsidy through a lame-duck session that voters and certain members of Congress finally got riled enough to begin to push legislation that eventually became our 20th Amendment. Nebraska Senator George Norris championed the cause, but it took six differing attempts and eleven more years to get the proposed Amendment passed through both Houses. If you look up the word “persistence” in the dictionary, you’ll find George Norris’s name.
