Amendment XXV—Presidential Succession & Disability—Ratified 10 February 1967
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Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 is the original provision for filling a presidential vacancy. It provides that:
“In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President…”
The first vacancy of the presidency occurred on 4 April 1841 when William Henry Harrison died after serving only one month, touching off what is considered this country’s second constitutional crisis (the first was the Nullification Crisis of 1832 when South Carolina refused to collect federal tariffs). The nature of this crisis was that while the Constitution states that the office “…shall devolve on the Vice President…”, it was not clear whether this was an acting presidency or a full succession to office. Eventually, Congress passed a resolution declaring Vice President John Tyler to be president in fact. This became a precedent for later successions.
*Tyler’s political foes, mostly members of the Whig party, referred to Tyler as “His Accidency” and held that he should have the title “Acting President”. Tyler had all letters addressed to “Vice President Tyler” or “Acting President Tyler was returned unopened.
Section 1 of the amendment permanently eliminates the “Tyler Dilemma” by stating definitely that
“In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.”
Prior to 1967, there was no means to fill a vacancy in the vice presidency; there had been sixteen vacancies in this office because of the death or resignation of the vice president or his elevation to the presidency. When Andrew Johnson succeeded Abraham Lincoln, there would be no vice president for nearly four years. Had Johnson been removed following his impeachment, the acting president would have gone to the president pro tempore of the Senate, Benjamin Wade. In the 229 years of the U.S. presidency, presidential succession has never gone beyond the vice president. Section 2 now provides that a vice presidential vacancy can be filled by presidential appointment subject to congressional approval.
On the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew on 12 October 1973, Gerald Ford was nominated and approved. On 9 August 1974, Nixon’s resignation elevated Ford to the Presidency* (in accordance with section 1). On 20 August 1974, Ford appointed Nelson Rockefeller as his vice president.
The president may, by the provisions of section 3, voluntarily declare himself unable to carry out his duties, he may voluntarily notify the speaker of the house and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the vice president will be acting president until further notice. This is generally intended for temporary medical events. President Eisenhower had a heart attack in 1955 and emergency surgery in 1956; while Vice President Nixon ran the executive branch, he never was actually named as acting president.
Section 3 has been invoked on three occasions, creating an acting president. On 13 July 1985, George H.W. Bush was acting president for eight hours while Reagan was undergoing surgery as a result of a colonoscopy. On 29 June 2002 and 21 July 2007, Dick Cheney became acting president while George W. Bush underwent colonoscopies**.
Section 4, involuntary removal of the president, has never been invoked. When an attempted assassination sent Ronald Reagan to emergency surgery, he was unable to invoke section 3, and Vice President Bush could not apply section 4 because he was in transit to Washington. Reagan was in recovery by the time Bush got back.
In 1987, Reagan’s chief of staff, Howard Baker, considered using section 4 to remove his boss from office because White House staff had observed that he was “…inattentive, inept and lazy…”.
More recently, many people have suggested invoking section 4 on the basis of President Trump’s erratic behavior***. In the book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump ****Psychiatrists Nanette Gartrell and Diane Mosbacher wrote:
“The Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution addresses presidential disability and succession. Section 4 of this amendment has never been invoked to evaluate whether a standing president is fit to serve. We call on Congress to act now within these provisions to create an independent, impartial panel of investigators to evaluate Mr. Trump’s fitness to fulfill the duties of the presidency. We urge Congress to pass legislation to ensure that future presidential and vice-presidential candidates are evaluated by this professional panel before the general election and that the sitting president and vice president be assessed on an annual basis. We also recommend that panel members receive all medical and mental health reports on the president and vice president, with the authorization to request any additional evaluations that the panel deems necessary.”
*Becoming the first (and so far only) person to hold the vice presidency and presidency without being elected to either office.
**Interesting that all of these occasions were caused by Republican presidents with anal problems.
***Including, but not limited to, Keith Olbermann, Jeffrey Frank, Heather Digby Parton, Ross Douthat and Richard Painter.
****This book is an anthology of essays, edited by Dr. Bandy Lee, by psychiatrists, psychologists and others offering professional opinions on the state of Donald Trump’s mental health.
Next – Act Seven: Amendment XXVI – Voting Age Lowered to Eighteen
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I don’t know about you Yanks. You’ve this bloody constitution thing but it all depends on who is interpreting it isn’t it? You’ve got your Congress, your president (bloody hell), and then there’s your so-called Supreme Court who can turn that all around. America you ain’t what you used to be.
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