What if terrorists were to knock off a large number of Congressmen

Quoting from an "more serious 9/11" thread:

But in all seriousness, expect martial law/some sort of dictatorial assumption of powers. As has been raised in numerous texts, both fiction and very non-fiction (DoD reports even), the US govt simply couldn't handle any scenario where it loses a lot of Senators/Representatives. Things go fubar very quickly, even in the best/most optimistic outlook.

Needn't be 9/11, but in the event of a large portion of congress being knocked of(lets say, at minimum, 15 senators) would we see significant chaos?
 
Quoting from an "more serious 9/11" thread:



Needn't be 9/11, but in the event of a large portion of congress being knocked of(lets say, at minimum, 15 senators) would we see significant chaos?

Maybe not, but we'd have a lot more Patriot Act type B.S. around, that I believe for sure. :(
 
Didn't Tom Clancy pull something like this so he could make Jack Ryan POTUS? In all seriousness though, I doubt much would change. New senators would be elected and the government would keep on keepin' on.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
I think enough states have laws on the books allowing for speedy appointment of interim Senators and for the holding of special elections for House districts to allow for a new Congress to be put together relatively quickly. Nevertheless, it would result in serious dislocation for a brief time.

In his wonderful book A More Perfect Constitution, political scientist Larry Sabato has called for a constitutional amendment that would "Create a Continuity of Government procedure to provide for replacement Senators and Congresspeople in the event of extensive deaths or incapacitation."
 
Quoting from an "more serious 9/11" thread:



Needn't be 9/11, but in the event of a large portion of congress being knocked of(lets say, at minimum, 15 senators) would we see significant chaos?

"Significant chaos"? No. Why would it? Senators and Representatives can be replaced quickly and easily -- gubernatorial appointment, special elections, etc. There would be some passing panic, as there was on 9/11, but the loss of a few dozen congress critters would not spark martial law or general chaos.
 
"Significant chaos"? No. Why would it? Senators and Representatives can be replaced quickly and easily -- gubernatorial appointment, special elections, etc. There would be some passing panic, as there was on 9/11, but the loss of a few dozen congress critters would not spark martial law or general chaos.
But the congress critters are the ones making the laws;). Even if the rest of the nation basically goes "meh!", it matters not a dime if the critters are in panic mode.

Though I was not entirely sure what kind of panic wolf_brother envisioned. Maybe he will pass through this thread and enlighten us.
 

Eurofed

Banned
In all likelihood, this would get a constitutional amendment swiftly passed to ensure the nomination of interim Representatives in emergency conditions.
 
Didn't Tom Clancy pull something like this so he could make Jack Ryan POTUS? In all seriousness though, I doubt much would change. New senators would be elected and the government would keep on keepin' on.
At the end of Debt of Honor, he had a Japanese airliner crash his plane into a joint session of Congress, with the President and much of the cabinet in attendance. Ryan had technically been made Vice President, for security reasons, I think, and was within a short distance of the Capitol Building when it went boom.
 
I'd think whatever was left of Congress would pass some kind of emergency rule allowing for a smaller quorum for each chamber, until the number of Senators/Representatives would get back to somewhere near where it was before, by either gubernatorial appointment or special elections.

I'd think for a while, there would be some initial chaos, probably a lot more restrictions on civil liberties like the Patriot Act, and probably, like Eurofed said, a push for an amendment to appoint interim representatives in the case of an emergency.
 
In all likelihood, this would get a constitutional amendment swiftly passed to ensure the nomination of interim Representatives in emergency conditions.

A "swiftly passed" constitutional amendment borders on ASB. (I'm being facetious, but not very....)
 
I'd think whatever was left of Congress would pass some kind of emergency rule allowing for a smaller quorum for each chamber, until the number of Senators/Representatives would get back to somewhere near where it was before, by either gubernatorial appointment or special elections.

I'd think for a while, there would be some initial chaos, probably a lot more restrictions on civil liberties like the Patriot Act, and probably, like Eurofed said, a push for an amendment to appoint interim representatives in the case of an emergency.

I might be incorrect, but isn't a "quorum" a simple majority of the current members of the Congress/Senate. If there's 98 Senators, then 49 constiutes a quorum, e.g. if there's only 15 surviving Senators then 7 present would be enough of a quorum to do business.

If that's the case, we could operate with as little as 1 guy handling all legislative affairs (maybe we need two to have the other guy preside per parliamentary rules), as the (surviving?) state Governors appoint new Senators and elections are called.
 

Eurofed

Banned
A "swiftly passed" constitutional amendment borders on ASB. (I'm being facetious, but not very....)

"Swiftly" by the standards of constitutional ratification, anyway. In my knowledge there is good precedent for a constitutional amendment which faced limited opposition being passed and ratified in more or less a year to an year and half, which is what I was expecting here.
 
The problem with passing constitutional amendments is the state legislatures have to pass them also. Some state legislatures only meet once a year for a set amount of time, IE Kansas meets from January to May of each year, and if it was any other time of the year it would need the governor of a state to call a special session which would not be able to be started overnight. There would need to have the amendment passed before anything happend for it to be done quickly.

Senators would be able to be appointed by the governors of the states quickly, but house members would need to have an election to fill those seats. So you would be able to have an up and running senate faster than a house of representatives.
 
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