Fordham Law School has launched an online 25th Amendment Archive. The archive marks the 50th anniversary of the amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which deals with presidential succession. Many of the archive’s materials are unavailable elsewhere.
The archive includes personal correspondence and other materials from John Feerick, who helped draft the 25th Amendment as a 27-year-old lawyer fresh out of Fordham Law School while working as an associate at Skadden Arps. Feerick went on to serve as dean of Fordham Law from 1982 to 2002 and currently holds the school’s Sidney C. Norris Chair of Law in Public Service. He and members of the Feerick Center for Social Justice at Fordham Law collaborated with The Maloney Library to develop this online resource for use by scholars, journalists, and citizens.
The archive offers an interactive timeline of the history and events that prompted Congress to create the amendment, which provides legal mechanisms for handling presidential inabilities and filling vice presidential vacancies. In addition, the archive provides access to the legal and scholarly discourse on the 25th Amendment since its ratification on February 10, 1967.
Materials also include law review and scholarly articles, books, congressional reports, executive branch documents, conference and symposium videos, photographs, and think-tank reports. All items in the archive may be viewed or downloaded. The repository will continue to grow in size and scope as additional materials are added.
As of August 9, 2017, materials from the archive have been downloaded approximately 42,127 times by users from 134 countries.
Feerick received the ABA Medal on August 12 at the 2017 ABA Annual Meeting in New York. The medal is the highest honor awarded by the American Bar Association.
On September 27, in conjunction with Feerick, Fordham Law School will present a symposium on the 25th Amendment. Learn more about Feerick and Fordham Law’s history with the 25th Amendment via Fordham Lawyer magazine.
