American presidential succession

[Mr Zoat]

I've been wondering what happens if the cabinet, house and senate are all killed. I know that the succession usually goes Vice President, Speaker, Other Speaker, then cabinet secretaries, but what comes after that?

Edit: Just to be clear for any FBI agents watching, no, I'm not planning on killing them.

 

[humon]

I have no idea what their constitution says, but if I were designing it, probably the military would take over in the interim until new elections could be organized. If everyone is all killed at once, it's a military emergency anyways.

But it could also be the case that the federal government just ceases to exist (people stop paying federal taxes and stop receiving federal services), the union just fractures into its component states, and each state has to coordinate with other states on an ad hoc basis, at least until federal institutions can be re-populated and brought back online.

 

[Avernus]

I've been wondering what happens if the cabinet, house and senate are all killed. I know that the succession usually goes Vice President, Speaker, Other Speaker, then cabinet secretaries, but what comes after that?

Click to shrink...

Looking it up, the answer seems to be "nobody knows". It's one of a number of unaddressed issues.

 

[Biigoh]

I've been wondering what happens if the cabinet, house and senate are all killed. I know that the succession usually goes Vice President, Speaker, Other Speaker, then cabinet secretaries, but what comes after that?

Edit: Just to be clear for any FBI agents watching, no, I'm not planning on killing them.

Click to shrink...

Battlestar Galactica says a school teacher from the department of education ends up President.

 

[Darkatlas]

America would either blow up or turn into fallout New Vegas or Cyberpunk. It's pretty close to that anyway so...

 

[Mr Zoat]

Battlestar Galactica says a school teacher from the department of education ends up President.

Click to shrink...

Wasn't she Secretary of State for Education?
[Actually checks]
Yes, she was 43rd in line for the job. She was going to resign after visiting Galactica, but then the cylons happened.

 

[Soupervan]

I have no idea what their constitution says, but if I were designing it, probably the military would take over in the interim until new elections could be organized. If everyone is all killed at once, it's a military emergency anyways.

Click to shrink...

That sounds about right, I bet most modern armies would step in after such a big attack, whether to ensure a new election or to take over themselves is the question.

 

[bobnik]

So it turns out the Designated Survivor is a reall thing and not just a TV series. The US government appears aware of the issue and this is the countermeasure.

 

[Mr Zoat]

So it turns out the Designated Survivor is a reall thing and not just a TV series. The US government appears aware of the issue and this is the countermeasure.

Click to shrink...

Yes, I learned about that from The West Wing, where Bartlet appologise to the Secretary of Agriculture for making him miss the State of the Union address and promising that they'd make someone else do it next year. He then quizzed him on who he'd pick for his staff if they all died, which the man really wasn't ready for.

 

[Darkatlas]

Yes, I learned about that from The West Wing, where Barlet appologise to the Secretary of Agriculture for making him miss the State of the Union address and promising that they'd make someone else do it next year. He then quizzed him on who he'd pick for his staff if they all died, which the man really wasn't ready for.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I liked that episode. West Wing is pretty interesting if you want to learn more about how the white house works. But if you don't know anything about US politics then you're going to have a hard time at first.