I was hoping for textbook references or cites from research articles to back up your contention.
What is amazing to me is just how little has been written by anybody concerning the phrase “shall have failed to qualify” in the 20th Amendment.
The electoral votes are counted on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. That was December 17th in 2012. So that’s when we have a presumptive president-elect. The Joint Session of Congress held to count and certify the votes of the Electors is held on January 6th but Obama changed the day to January 4th in 2013 because the 6th was a Sunday.
Confirming qualifications is somewhat dysfunctional under the current system since Congress is in Christmas recess from the time the Electors choose the presumptive President-Elect until the counting and certification of the electoral votes which confirms who is the president/vice president.
Those who challenged Obama’s qualifications had almost no time to make their case under the provisions of the 20th Amendment, no matter how one interprets its meaning.
I guess the case can be made that if ne Representative and one Senator are convinced that the president elect dd jot qualify, they can interrupt the certification process and present their argument to their full House of Congress.
The problem is that Congress at some point in time stopped at section 15. To all of sudden follow through with their duty under U.S. Code 3 Chapter 1 would be not only be embarrassing but also appear to be racist to all of sudden ask for “papers” from a black President elect.