Who takes over if something happens to the president?

Most know the short answer to this question (the vice president), but every few years after an election, or during moments of national crisis like 9/11, the matter of presidential succession comes into focus. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out recently, there are scenarios -- unlikely but not entirely far-fetched -- whereby an interim cabinet secretary could wind up as president. This has some scholars and legislators clamoring for a change to the succession rules. 

Inauguration Day poses a particular sticking point for those unhappy with the current arrangement, since on that day at 12 noon, the three top successors to the new president are often gathered on the same podium. They are the vice president, the Speaker of the House, and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. One well-placed attack could thrust the fourth person in the line of succession, the Secretary of State, into the presidency. The fact that many cabinet secretaries tender their resignation on or around January 20, and new replacements aren't confirmed by the Senate until later, means that interim officials may be temporarily high up the line of succession.

A bipartisan group called the Continuity of Government Commission has been looking into presidential succession and other leadership continuity issues, and are close to releasing a set of specific recommendations for a more sensible succession plan. Among their concerns: the Speaker and Senate president are not always the same political party as the president and vice president. In a crisis, shifting party control of the White House doesn't make much sense, scholars say. 

The Constitution authorizes Congress to name an "officer" to the presidency if both president and vice president are unable to serve. Some question whether the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 is unconstitutional, since it passes power from the Executive Branch to the Legislative in the way succession is laid out.

Another cause for concern is what happens if several Supreme Court justices were incapacitated. The Court needs a quorum of six justices to do business, and would be effectively suspended until the president nominated and the Senate confirmed replacement justices. The lack of an orderly succession plan for the Court was made more urgent by 9/11, when the Judicial Conference of the U.S. was meeting close to the Capitol Building, the intended target of the fourth airplane. The attendees at the conference: Supreme Court justices and chief judges of federal appeals courts.

Suggestions for how to remedy the situation include having at least one incoming Cabinet official be nominated and confirmed by the Senate before the new president takes office, and for that official to then "get out of town."  

"It's just irresponsible that we haven't dealt with this," said Philip Bobbitt, a constitutional-law scholar at Columbia University, in the Journal article.