Twentieth Amendment
Presidential Succession & Terms · Fixed the original Constitution’s built-in lame-duck problem
Ratified in 1933, the Twentieth Amendment moved the start of presidential and congressional terms earlier in the calendar year, closing a months-long gap between Election Day and when newly elected officials actually took power under the original Constitution.
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.
Twentieth Amendment, ratified 1933
The text
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 the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.
Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.
Section 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.
Note: Article I, section 4, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of this amendment. In addition, a portion of the 12th amendment was superseded by section 3. Spelling and punctuation as transcribed by the National Archives.
What the Old System Actually Looked Like
Before 1933
A defeated or outgoing president stayed in office until March 4th — roughly four months after a November election, an artifact of how long it took election results to travel in the 1780s.
After 1933
Inauguration moved to January 20th, cutting the transition gap roughly in half and reducing the window for a lame-duck administration to act with diminished democratic legitimacy.
The gap this amendment fixed once had real consequences
A common misconception is that this amendment is a purely technical, low-stakes housekeeping change. The old four-month gap was widely blamed for worsening the early response to the Great Depression — a defeated president with no political mandate remained in office through the initial bank crisis of early 1933, unable or unwilling to act decisively while an incoming administration waited on the sidelines. This amendment was ratified specifically in response to that experience.