3 U.S.C. § 20 (2024)

This is the official text of 3 U.S.C. § 20 (2024), part of Federal (US Code)’s United States Code — the codified general and permanent federal statutes of the United States, organized into more than 50 numbered titles by subject.

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Resignation or refusal of office

Official statutory text

The only evidence of a refusal to accept, or of a resignation of the office of President or Vice President, shall be an instrument in writing, declaring the same, and subscribed by the person refusing to accept or resigning, as the case may be, and delivered into the office of the Secretary of State.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 644, 62 Stat. 678.)

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act

For protection and preservation of tape recordings of conversations involving former President Richard M. Nixon, see sections 101 to 106 of Pub. L. 93–526, set out as a note under section 2107 of Title 44, Public Printing and Documents.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.