In a more serious tone, do you have fuller details on those nifty 28th and 29th Amendments?
It's funny you should ask that.
Text of the Twenty-Seventh Amendment (Presidential Use of Force Amendment) (1973)
1. The power of the President to introduce the Armed Forces of the United States into imminent or actual hostilities, clearly indicated by the circumstances, shall be exercised only pursuant to a declaration of war, or to other specific statutory authorization, or to a national emergency created by an attack or attacks upon the citizens, the states and territories, or the Armed Forces of the United States.
2. In every possible instance the President shall consult with Congress prior to such introduction of the Armed Forces of the United States, or as soon after introduction due to national emergency as circumstances allow.
3. Upon any consultation with Congress prior to such introduction of forces, Congress shall have the right to refuse such introduction.
4. Within twenty-four hours of such introduction of forces the President shall submit a report to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and to the President pro tempore of the Senate that details the circumstances of that introduction, the constitutional or statutory terms under which it is undertaken, the estimated scope and duration of the introduction of forces, and such other information as the Congress may request for the fulfillment of the Congress' constitutional responsibilities with respect to war powers.
5. Within sixty days of such introduction of forces, the President shall commence their withdrawal unless Congress has issued a declaration of war, or otherwise extended by law the sixty-day period, or is unable to meet due to the effect of an attack upon the United States.
6. Any extension by law of the sixty-day period, including declaration of war, must be completed by Congress not less than thirty days before the sixty-day period expires.
7. At the end of the sixty-day period, the following period for withdrawal of forces shall not be greater than sixty days unless approved by Congress through an extension by law, and based entirely upon evidence and information presented by the President to Congress regarding the practical necessity of such extension.
Text of the Twenty-Eighth Amendment (Presidential Emergency Succession Amendment) (1974)
1. All terms and conditions of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution remain in force herein.
2. In case of the removal of both the President and Vice President from office, or their death, resignation, or other incapacity as recognized by law, then succession to the powers, duties, and prerogatives of the presidency shall settle as follows.
3. Presidential succession shall pass by rule of seniority of office through the Cabinet, beginning with the office of Secretary of State, and proceed by seniority through the Executive Branch among only those officers of state appointed to their offices, duties, and entitlements by advice and consent of the Senate, so long as the officer next in succession is a United States citizen born within the states and territories of the United States.
4. Such officers shall take upon themselves the role of Acting President, fully sworn to act with the powers, duties, and prerogatives of the presidency, and required within thirty days to present to both houses of Congress a Vice Presidential candidate in accord with the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.
5. Once elected by confirmation of both houses of Congress, such a Vice Presidential candidate shall assume their office and by right of constitutional succession become President in full at the time of their first availability.
6. At that time the Acting President shall lay down those presidential powers, duties, and prerogatives they have held.
7. An Acting President who has surrendered those powers shall have the right to resume their former office or any other such appointment, on condition of the advice and consent of the Senate.
Text of the Twenty-Ninth Amendment (Command and Consent Amendment) (1974)
1. Any duly appointed officer on whom the powers, duties, and prerogatives of the presidency have settled, whether an elected President, an elected Vice President, an appointed and confirmed Vice President succeeding to the presidency, or an Acting President, shall be bound by the terms and conditions of this amendment.
2. In their role as commander in chief, that officer shall only employ nuclear or biological weapons, or other means of comparable destructive power, as weapons of war upon confirmation and concurrence from another officer of the Executive Branch granted their offices, duties, and entitlements by advice and consent of the Senate.
3. Any military officer who has accepted orders from the commander in chief to make use of such weapons without the concurrence of a second officer of state as provided above, shall be subject to a court-martial as prescribed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice at the earliest possible time and date.
4. Any failure by the commander in chief to adhere to this procedure shall cause the commander in chief to be removed from office for unfitness by a majority vote of the Cabinet as prescribed in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, or upon failure of such vote the House of Representatives shall be required to vote upon impeachment of the commander in chief for breach of constitutional duties, in which case of impeachment the Senate shall promptly try the commander in chief on the charges issued.
5. In the event that an attack or attacks upon the United States, its duly elected leaders, its states and territories, or upon the Armed Forces of the United States, should render such communication and consent with a second officer of the Executive Branch impossible, the commander in chief may act in response to such an attack or attacks without penalty under this amendment.
"Known collectively as the War Powers Amendments, the three coordinated amendments were put before Congress in the wake of the United States' single longest undeclared war, and the political and cultural tumult it had caused. Put forward by the reformist McGovern administration in an effort to "right the ship" of balanced constitutional powers over war-making and to provide constitutional mechanisms that could cope with the problems of the nuclear age, the War Powers Amendments feature prominently in the argument by some historians of the present day that ... in particular the years 1964-1976, represented a Second Progressive Era in American politics..."
In the meanwhile let's us and everyone else in the thread enjoy a little YC-14 porn:
