The Ford and Rockefeller Inaugurations

The tradition of vice-presidential inaugural statements ended with John Nance Garner in 1933. But in 1973 the speech returned in the special case of a 25th Amendment Vice President. Gerald Ford's inauguration got the full treatment. He was sworn in by the Chief Justice. The ceremony happened in the House before a Joint Session of Congress. And Ford then gave a speech. Nelson Rockefeller's inauguration a year later was similar, except his ceremony was held in the Senate.

Ford's inaugural speech was unique in that the audience knew that he could well be President soon. It was December 1973 and Nixon was in deep trouble. Reading between the lines, Ford was clear enough on this by saying things like: “Our great Republic stands solid and strong upon the bedrock of the Constitution” and “I pledge to as you, as I did the day I was first admitted to the bar, my dedication to the rule of law.”

Anyway, the full paper on vice-presidential inaugurals will be published later this year in Green Bag. I'll get it up on SSRN when I can.

Next week, I'm going to start a series of posts on my next book project, which will be about Birch Bayh's Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. Part of what I did during my blogging sabbatical was read thousands of pages of Senate hearings so that you don't have to.