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The constitution was signed -
the constitution provides that the congress will begin each session on the first Monday in December. this is referred to as the lame duck session -
November 1860 election as President, Abraham Lincoln was powerless to act on the secession of southern states from the Union. Seven states left the Union as the lame-duck President, James Buchanan, did little to please the secessionist states and the rest of the Union. By the time Lincoln assumed office in March 1861, the separatist states had formed their own government, and the course was set for the Civil War.
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20th amendment added to the Constitution was ratified on January 23, 1933 -
20th Amendment ratified in 1935 -
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first president to be inaugurated on the new date, January 20, 1937. -
Roosevelt was not injured, however if he had died in the attack, then the 20th Amendment provided for Vice President-elect John N. Garner to serve in his place. Roosevelt and Garner were the first President and Vice President to be elected after the adoption of the new Amendment. -
In 1974, Congress approved the nomination of Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President during a lame-duck session. -
After Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980, the lame-duck Congress found a way in a bipartisan manner to pass budget resolutions that were delayed during the election year. And in 1998, a Republican-controlled House approved articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton
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The 20th Amendment is a technical and straightforward one, so there do not exist many Court cases, especially at the Supreme Court level, that reference the Amendment. However, in 2009, attorney Mario Apuzzo of New Jersey filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of four individuals who wished to challenge then-President Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president.