What is the 20th Amendment?

The 20th Amendment was ratified on January 23, 1933, after years of advocacy by Senator George Norris of Nebraska. The original Constitution specified no fixed inauguration date; through practice and statute, March 4 became the traditional date starting with John Adams's inauguration in 1797. That date had made sense when travel and communication were slow, but by the 20th century it left a nearly four-month gap between Election Day in early November and the start of a new administration. A president who lost in November would govern until the following March 4 as a lame duck, retaining full constitutional authority but holding diminished political legitimacy. Congress itself also faced a parallel problem: newly elected members did not take their seats until the following December under the old schedule, meaning they sometimes waited more than a year after their election before serving.

Section 1 of the amendment sets the presidential term to begin at noon on January 20 and the congressional term to begin at noon on January 3, both in the year following a general election. These dates replaced the March 4 start dates that had governed since the republic's early years. The practical effect on presidential transitions was to shorten the lame-duck period from roughly 118 days to roughly 74 days -- a reduction of six weeks.

Section 2 provides that Congress shall convene at least once every year, beginning at noon on January 3, unless Congress sets a different date by law. This replaced an earlier constitutional provision that set the first Monday in December as the start of congressional sessions, which had meant that newly elected members of Congress often did not take their seats for more than a year after winning their election.

Section 3 addresses presidential succession before inauguration. It provides that if the president-elect dies before January 20, the vice president-elect becomes president. It also provides that if no president has been chosen by inauguration day -- for example, because no candidate received a majority of electoral votes and the House has not yet resolved a contingency election -- the vice president-elect shall act as president until a president qualifies. Congress may also legislate for the case in which neither a president-elect nor a vice president-elect has qualified, naming who shall then act as president. This succession provision applies to the period before inauguration and is distinct from the 25th Amendment, which governs succession and presidential inability once a president is already in office.

The transition to practice was immediate. Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inauguration on March 4, 1933 -- just seven weeks after ratification -- was the last presidential inauguration held on that date. Roosevelt's second inauguration on January 20, 1937 was the first held under the new schedule. Every presidential inauguration since has taken place on January 20, or on January 21 when January 20 falls on a Sunday. For 2028, the winner of the November 7, 2028 election will be inaugurated as the 48th President at noon on Saturday, January 20, 2029.