Amendments 20-22

20th Amendment- This amendment is also known as the Lame Duck Amendment. It reduces the “lame duck” period by two months. The president used to take office on March 4th, but since this amendment it has been changed to January 20th. This amendment also gives different possibilities if there were a vacancy in the President’s spot or the Vice-President’s spot. This amendment was ratified on January 23, 1933. The first inauguration for this amendment to take place was in 1937 when Roosevelt and Nance became President and Vice President respectively.

21st Amendment- The 21st Amendment is simply the abolishment of Prohibition. The people found out that you cannot actually regulate something like this. “By the 1930’s the people badgered as they were by the Great Depression, had had enough of this unenforceable law. The 21st amendment, repealing the 18th, was speedily passed by Congress and ratified by the states in 1933. (Reader’s Digest 346) The 18th Amendment actually had more bad things come from it then good things. It looked good on paper but it simply didn’t work. Franklin P. Adams sums it up nicely by saying, “Prohibition is an awful flop. We like it. It can’t stop what it’s meant to stop. We like it. It’s left a trail of graft and slime, it don’t prohibit worth a dime, it’s filled our land with vice and crime. Nevertheless, we’re for it” (Beschloss 182).

22nd Amendment- Simply stated, this amendment limits the terms a President can serve to two. Before this two was more of a suggestion because of the model George Washington had set for us, but this suggestion went out the window when Franklin D. Roosevelt became President. He served four and this amendment was put in place so that America was more of a democracy and no person was in power for to long.


Beschloss, Michael. Our Documents. Oxford University Press: New York. 2003

Readers Digest, The Story of America, Creating a System of Government. Readers Digest Association: Pleasantville New York 1975.