[Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis, and Interpretation - 1992 Edition ]
[Amendments to the Constitution]
[Twenty-Fifth Amendment - Presidential Vacancy, Disability, and Inability]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]
[[Page 1991]]
TWENTY-FIFTH AMENDMENT
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PRESIDENTIAL VACANCY, DISABILITY, AND INABILITY
Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of
his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice
President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take
office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro
tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives
his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and
duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written
declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged
by the Vice President as Acting President.
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the
principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as
Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of
the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written
declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and
duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the
powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore
of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his
written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers
and duties of his office unless the
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Vice President and a majority of either the principle officers of the
executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law
provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the
Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written
declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and
duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue,
assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session.
If the Congress within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter
written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session within twenty-one
days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds
vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers
and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge
the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the
powers and duties of his office.
PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION
The Twenty-fifth Amendment was an effort to resolve some of the
continuing issues revolving about the office of the President; that is,
what happens upon the death, removal, or resignation of the President
and what is the course to follow if for some reason the President
becomes disabled to such a degree that he cannot fulfill his
responsibilities? The practice had been well established that the Vice
President became President upon the death of the President, as had
happened eight times in our history. Presumably, the Vice President
would become President upon the removal of the President from office.
Whether the Vice President would become acting President when the
President became unable to carry on and whether the President could
resume his office upon his recovering his ability were two questions
that had divided scholars and experts. Also, seven Vice Presidents had
died in office and one had resigned, so that for some twenty per cent of
United States history there had been no Vice President to step up. But
the seemingly most insoluble problem was that of presidential
inability--Garfield lying in a coma for eighty days before succumbing to
the effects of
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an assassin's bullet, Wilson an invalid for the last eighteen months of
his term, the result of a stroke--with its unanswered questions: who was
to determine the existence of an inability, how was the matter to be
handled if the President sought to continue, in what manner should the
Vice President act, would he be acting President or President, what was
to happen if the President recovered. Congress finally proposed this
Amendment to the States in the aftermath of President Kennedy's
assassination, with the Vice Presidency vacant and a President who had
previously had a heart attack.
This Amendment saw multiple use during the 1970s and resulted
for the first time in our history in the accession to the Presidency and
Vice-Presidency of two men who had not faced the voters in a national
election. First, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned on October 10,
1973, and President Nixon nominated Gerald R. Ford of Michigan to
succeed him, following the procedures of Sec. 2 of the Amendment for the
first time. Hearings were held upon the nomination by the Senate Rules
Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, both Houses thereafter
confirmed the nomination, and the new Vice President took the oath of
office December 6, 1973. Second, President Richard M. Nixon resigned his
office August 9, 1974, and Vice President Ford immediately succeeded to
the office and took the presidential oath of office at noon of the same
day. Third, again following Sec. 2 of the Amendment, President Ford
nominated Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York to be Vice President; on
August 20, 1974, hearings were held in both Houses, confirmation voted
and Mr. Rockefeller took the oath of office December 19, 1974.\1\
\1\For the legislative history, see S. Rep. No. 66, 89th Cong.,
1st Sess. (1965); H.R. Rep. No. 203, 89th Cong., 1st Sess. (1965); H.R.
Rep. No. 564, 89th Cong., 1st Sess. (1965). For an account of the
history of the succession problem, see R. Silva, Presidential Succession
(1951).