President's Term Ends on a Sunday: What To Do, What To Do?

President Barack Obama’s first term ends at noon on Jan. 20, a Sunday, per the 20th Amendment. Since inaugurations aren’t held on Sundays, President Obama “will likely take the oath that Sunday, in a more intimate setting, and then take it again the following Monday during the inauguration ceremony, to keep appearances.”

“There is precedent. President Ronald Reagan took his 1985 oath in private at the White House, because the 20th fell on a Sunday that year. The inauguration was held the next day . . . Chief Justice Earl Warren swore in President Dwight Eisenhower in a private ceremony, because Jan. 20, 1957, was a Sunday. He went through the motions again the next day, during the inauguration.”

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat