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Authors: Tom Abrahams
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his temples below his rapidly receding hairline.
Sixteen-year-old Matti had picked at her plate. She knew there had to be a clear-cut answer somewhere. She reasoned that every puzzle had a solution and every code had a key.
That was, until her boss gave her an assignment too good to be true. The NSA prided itself on allowing its employees to “move around within the agency” and experiment with different elements of the intelligence game. But this was an unusually rapid transition with no merit. Of that, she was positive.
There was more to this “asset” and this “investigation” than her supervisor wanted her to know. It was as if she’d caught her mother hiding Easter eggs.
Chapter 11
Felicia Jackson was pacing in her office as a team of exhausted aides sat in chairs, three-ringed binders and reams of paper on their laps.
“Look, people,” she directed, “I am not a constitutional scholar. I need the basic information here. I have to know what we’re doing and what we’re fighting against. Don’t give me legal mumbo jumbo.”
The more experienced attorneys were busy elsewhere, formulating her case, and a young attorney on loan to her from a powerful DC law firm spoke up.
“Madam Speaker,” he offered, “let’s get down to brass tacks here.”
“Good!” She stopped pacing and pointed at the young man. She noticed that he was still in his three-piece suit, tie knotted to the top button.
“The line of presidential succession is mentioned in the Constitution in two places. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment provides for the ascension of an able-bodied vice president. That element is essentially moot here because there is no current vice president.”
“Won’t they make the case that Blackmon is the VP?”
“Yes. But the Twenty-Fifth Amendment probably won’t come into play. We have to concern ourselves with Article II, Section 1.”
“Which says what?” She asked the question as she turned her back on the lawyer and walked to her desk, half standing, half sitting on the desk’s edge with only one foot on the floor.
“It reads—” the attorney looked down at the paper stack on his lap “—‘Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both of the president and vice president, declaring what officer shall then act as president, and such officer shall act accordingly.’ We argue,” he continued without looking up, “that you are the ‘officer’ at the top of the succession order. Though, you must first take the oath before you can assume the duties and authority of the office.”
“So,” Felicia said, mulling over what the lawyer was saying, “this is nothing different from what I was told earlier. I am still not clear on why Blackmon has any case at all. He never took the oath.”
“That is true, Madam Speaker,” the attorney replied. “But their case is about the constitutionality of your place in the line of succession. This will center on the Succession Act of 1947.”
The lawyer picked up the stack of papers from his lap and placed them on the floor in front of his chair. When he bent forward, Felicia noticed the small circular bald patch on the top of the young man’s head.
“Here’s where we make our case,” he said, sitting up straight in his seat. “United States Code Title 3, Chapter 1, Section 19 lays out the ‘officer’ eligible to act as president should both the sitting president and vice president be unable to perform their duties. In subsection A1, it clearly states that ‘the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, upon his resignation as Speaker and as representative in Congress, act as president.’”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Well, Madam,” the attorney paused, “they will point to the same US code subsection E. It reads ‘Subsections (a), (b), and (d) of this section shall apply only to such officers as are eligible to the office of president under the Constitution.’ And they will
Sixteen-year-old Matti had picked at her plate. She knew there had to be a clear-cut answer somewhere. She reasoned that every puzzle had a solution and every code had a key.
That was, until her boss gave her an assignment too good to be true. The NSA prided itself on allowing its employees to “move around within the agency” and experiment with different elements of the intelligence game. But this was an unusually rapid transition with no merit. Of that, she was positive.
There was more to this “asset” and this “investigation” than her supervisor wanted her to know. It was as if she’d caught her mother hiding Easter eggs.
Chapter 11
Felicia Jackson was pacing in her office as a team of exhausted aides sat in chairs, three-ringed binders and reams of paper on their laps.
“Look, people,” she directed, “I am not a constitutional scholar. I need the basic information here. I have to know what we’re doing and what we’re fighting against. Don’t give me legal mumbo jumbo.”
The more experienced attorneys were busy elsewhere, formulating her case, and a young attorney on loan to her from a powerful DC law firm spoke up.
“Madam Speaker,” he offered, “let’s get down to brass tacks here.”
“Good!” She stopped pacing and pointed at the young man. She noticed that he was still in his three-piece suit, tie knotted to the top button.
“The line of presidential succession is mentioned in the Constitution in two places. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment provides for the ascension of an able-bodied vice president. That element is essentially moot here because there is no current vice president.”
“Won’t they make the case that Blackmon is the VP?”
“Yes. But the Twenty-Fifth Amendment probably won’t come into play. We have to concern ourselves with Article II, Section 1.”
“Which says what?” She asked the question as she turned her back on the lawyer and walked to her desk, half standing, half sitting on the desk’s edge with only one foot on the floor.
“It reads—” the attorney looked down at the paper stack on his lap “—‘Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both of the president and vice president, declaring what officer shall then act as president, and such officer shall act accordingly.’ We argue,” he continued without looking up, “that you are the ‘officer’ at the top of the succession order. Though, you must first take the oath before you can assume the duties and authority of the office.”
“So,” Felicia said, mulling over what the lawyer was saying, “this is nothing different from what I was told earlier. I am still not clear on why Blackmon has any case at all. He never took the oath.”
“That is true, Madam Speaker,” the attorney replied. “But their case is about the constitutionality of your place in the line of succession. This will center on the Succession Act of 1947.”
The lawyer picked up the stack of papers from his lap and placed them on the floor in front of his chair. When he bent forward, Felicia noticed the small circular bald patch on the top of the young man’s head.
“Here’s where we make our case,” he said, sitting up straight in his seat. “United States Code Title 3, Chapter 1, Section 19 lays out the ‘officer’ eligible to act as president should both the sitting president and vice president be unable to perform their duties. In subsection A1, it clearly states that ‘the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, upon his resignation as Speaker and as representative in Congress, act as president.’”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Well, Madam,” the attorney paused, “they will point to the same US code subsection E. It reads ‘Subsections (a), (b), and (d) of this section shall apply only to such officers as are eligible to the office of president under the Constitution.’ And they will
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