American Bar Association Special Committee on Election Reform, Symposium on the Vice-Presidency, Panel Discussion 5. Closing Statements and Recommendations

Abstract

This transcript is part of the published proceedings of a symposium convened by the American Bar Association’s Special Committee on Election Reform, which the ABA formed in 1973 and was chaired by John D. Feerick. The symposium took place at Fordham Law School on December 3, 1976. It occurred in the wake of the Watergate era, which saw the resignation of one vice president, the appointment of two vice presidents pursuant to the Twenty-Fifth Amendment’s Section 2, and a vice president’s succession to the presidency. The symposium’s purpose was to assemble experts on the vice-presidency to develop reform proposals related to the office. In this segment, the panelists make closing statements and advance recommendations related to the vice presidency. The following panelists participated in the discussion: John D. Feerick, Chairman of the ABA Special Committee on Election Reform Daniel L. Golden, Member of the ABA Special Committee on Election Reform Joel Goldstein, Rhodes Scholar at Oxford Robert Griffin, U.S. Senator from Michigan Ira Jackson, Assistant Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government and co-author of Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics Report on vice presidential selection James C. Kirby, Professor at New York University Law School and former general counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments Clarence M. Mitchell, Director of the NAACP’s Washington Office Endicott Peabody, Former Governor or Massachusetts and Member of the Humphrey Commission on Vice Presidential Selection Dale W. Read, Jr., Member of the ABA Special Committee on Election Reform George Reedy, Dean of Marquette University College of Journalism and former aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Professor at the City University of New York and author of “The Imperial Presidency” William B. Spann, Jr., President-elect of the ABA Donald Young, Senior Editor for American History and Political Science at Encyclopedia American