A Breakthrough on Presidential Inability: The ABA Conference Consensus

As a marriage of the two proposals which have the greatest past acceptance, the consensus recommendation should receive widespread acceptance. It meets the objections which the Kennedy administration had to the Eisenhower proposal and the objections of supporters of the Eisenhower plan to the enabling amendment. It does not appear to be subject to any legitimate criticism which executive branch spokesmen have leveled in the past at proposed amendments. The method by which it evolved should indicate widespread acceptance in academic and professional circles.

Executive support continues to be the key. Experience has shown that no proposal so intimately concerned with the internal affairs of the executive can secure congressional approval without affirmative presidential encouragement. Time may also be of the essence. If public interest subsides and general apathy and indifference return to the subject of presidential succession, the Eisenhower experience shows that executive voices can go unheard in Congress.

Only another crisis could then arouse the necessary public concern. We cannot be sure that our present incomplete and makeshift methods will let us escape the next executive crisis without serious damage to the Republic.