Amendment XX
583
i . a m e n d m e n t x i x (1920)
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
This Amendment establishing women’s suffrage is the culmination of a
political reform effort that began in the 1840s. When the Amendment
was first adopted, it was argued that the Amendment enlarged the electorate without a State’s consent, destroyed its autonomy, and therefore
exceeded the amending power. Pointing to the Fifteenth Amendment as
precedent, the Supreme Court rejected this view, and has seldom had occasion to interpret the Amendment since.
j . a m e n d m e n t x x (1933)
section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on
the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon
on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if
this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then
begin.
section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such
meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law
appoint a different day.
section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President,
the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the
Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified;
and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President
elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act
as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and
such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have
qualified.
section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of
the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President
whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of