Presidential Death After Vice Presidential Disability

[A18]

Let's say the vice president is in a coma. The president is assassinated.

What happens? Discuss.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

U.S.C. 3 § 19 kicks in and the Speaker of the House resigns from the House to become acting President uuntil such time as the Vice President is no longer disabled.  If the Speaker chooses to not resign (and the way the law is worded it doesn't appear that he's required to)  then the President pro tem of the Senate gets the same offer, and if he refuses then the Secretary of State gets the offer and so forth down the line of presidential succession.  Personally, I think the line of succession is too short to deal with a real catastrophy, but fortunately we've never had one quite that bad.

[A18]

The vice president becomes president upon the former president's death.

The president is now in a coma, and the vice presidency is vacant. There is no statutory solution that I'm aware of.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

The law is as clear as one could ever hope for here.  The Speaker gets to be acting President until the former Vice President is no longer incapacitated. The rest of 3 USC 19 dicusses what happens if the Speaker either chooses to not become acting President or is unable to.