Freund Testifies on Succession Plan

Paul A. Freund, Carl M. Loeb University Professor, has told a Senate subcommittee that Congress should elect a new Vice-President when the post becomes vacant. He also suggested that the new President--President Johnson, for example--nominate several candidates for the office.

Freund appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on constitutional amendments Tuesday, as one of several representatives of the American Bar Association. They presented the proposals drawn up at an ABA conference on presidential inability and succession held in January.

"The Vice Presidency should have a popular base," Freund stated, "and at the same time be in harmony with the Congress. These objectives can best be achieved by associating the Congress and the President in the selection, with the opportunity for informal consultation to be expected in such a process."

The "trouble with having the Speaker of the House" succeed to the Vice Presidency, Freund said, is that he might be of a different party than the President.

Freund also pointed out that a Speaker might be reluctant to resign and assume an office he might be filling for only a short time.

And Freund feels that the office of Vice President should be kept filled--as it is not, under present laws--to assure "continuity of Administration policy," and avoid "extraneous considerations in deciding whether to make a transfer of power."

The ABA plan is slightly different from the one Freund proposed in the CRIMSON in December. At that time he suggested that if the Vice President succeeded the President with more than two years in the term, a new Vice President should be chosen at the time of the next Congressional election.

He now thinks it a bad idea to hold such an election in what might be a time of national upset.

In his statement before the subcommittee, Freund also suggested that the President appoint a commission to determine his own inability to hold office. The commission would be composed of the Vice President, the heads of several executive departments, prominent members of Congress, and a medical doctor.

Such a commission, Freund said, "would have the advantage of being a disinterested group, designed by the President himself, and prepared to take action without any hint of extraneous motivations."