Non-sequitur. The person legally authorized to administer the oath of office is the one who would stipulate that it was properly administered. The witness attests to the fact that the oath was administered not that it was properly administered.
Again, it doesn’t matter whether or not Obama can “act as President.” It doesn’t matter whether or not he was lawfully declared to be the winner of the Presidential election. He has entered upon the office. He is the sitting President until the Judiciary and Congress say otherwise.
You’re bogged down in technicalities and can’t see the forest for the trees.
>He is the sitting President until the Judiciary and Congress say otherwise.
You’re forgetting one other key group: the people.
“The United States Code Annotated includes the Declaration of Independence under the heading ‘The Organic Laws of the United States of America’ along with the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, and the Northwest Ordinance. Enabling acts frequently require states to adhere to the principles of the Declaration; in the Enabling Act of June 16, 1906, Congress authorized Oklahoma Territory to take steps to become a state. Section 3 provides that the Oklahoma Constitution ‘shall not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence.’”
—[ http://www.nccs.net/newsletter/jun98nl.html ]
If the Declaration of Independence is law, and it WAS codified by Congress 04 Jul 1776, then the following IS law:
“That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”
So if I went and sat in the White House and managed to not get thrown physically out on my ear in a physical coup.... then I too could be recognized as the President?
What I hear you saying is that the only power the people have to ensure that a usurper doesn’t hold the office is physical violence - literally throwing him out on his ear. Is that what you’re saying?
It doesn’t matter if he can “act as President”? That REALLY sounds like “Constitution be damned.” Did you really mean to say that?
Who is legally authorized to administer the oath of office to the Pres elect and VP elect? How does one get authorized to do that? Who was authorized to administer the oath to LBJ, and what authorized them?
And exactly where does the Constitution authorize the person who administers the oath to interpret and apply the 20th Amendment? I know the Third Article authorizes the federal judiciary to interpret and apply the Constitution and laws, but you’re talking about a single person outside the process of the courts. Where is it ever said in the Constitution that a single person, without hearing any case or considering any evidence, can interpret and apply the 20th Amendment?