Continuity of Government Analysis on succession, resilience, and democratic endurance

Continuity of Government

Analysis on succession, resilience, and democratic endurance

Latest Articles

Sixty-Two Minutes at the White House: Reconstructing an Unprecedented Section 4 Invocation
Institutional Resilience

Sixty-Two Minutes at the White House: Reconstructing an Unprecedented Section 4 Invocation

No president has ever been declared unable to serve against his will, and no vice president has ever signed the letter that would begin that process. Using constitutional scholarship, historical near-misses, and the amendment's own text, this analysis reconstructs how a Section 4 invocation would unfold hour by hour — and where it could break down.
Two Decades of Strain: What September 11 and January 6 Revealed About the Machinery of Succession
Institutional Resilience

Two Decades of Strain: What September 11 and January 6 Revealed About the Machinery of Succession

American continuity planning has faced two defining stress tests in the twenty-first century: the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Each exposed different fault lines in the constitutional architecture, and each offers lessons that remain only partially implemented.