WHAT IS THE 25TH AMENDMENT AND WHEN HAS IT BEEN INVOKED?
AMENDMENT XXV (1967)
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 Vice President and a majority of either the principal 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.
25th Amendment Explained (6:29)
"President Bush said Friday that he is scheduled to undergo a colonoscopy — his third — on Saturday. Bush will transfer
power to Vice President Cheney for about an hour while he is sedated for the screening test for colon cancer." MSNBC, 628-02
Disability Clause
The 25th Amendment provides two remedies when a president is disabled.
1. The president of his own volition may turn over the power of his office to the vice president.
2. The vice president, with the assent of a majority of the leading members of the cabinet, may make himself acting
president on a temporary basis.
The disability clause of the amendment has never been formally invoked until now. Wire Service reports indicate that
White House Counsel Al Gonzales has expressly indicated that the president plans to invoke the amendment.
In July 1985 President Ronald Reagan underwent an operation to remove a cancerous tissue from his colon. In
anticipation of his operation, which required him to be anesthetized, President Reagan sent a letter to the speaker of the
House of Representatives and to the president pro tem of the Senate notifying them that he was turning over the powers
of the presidency to Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush: "I have determined and it is my intention and direction
that Vice President George Bush shall discharge powers and duties in my stead, commencing with the administration of
anesthesia to me." This is the procedure outlined in the 25th Amendment, but President Reagan expressly indicated that
1
he was not invoking the amendment. "I do not believe," he wrote in his letter to the Congress, "that the drafters of this
amendment intended its application to situations such as the present one." Various explanations have been offered for
what one scholar, Thomas Cronin, refers to as this "curious sentence." Cronin has suggested Reagan "and his aides
feared that Reagan might have further illnesses and operations and that frequent invoking of this section [of the 25th
Amendment] might diminish Reagan's leadership image." But it is also possible that Reagan was attempting to avoid
setting a precedent that might bind his successors (or himself). Eight hours after he gave up power he signed a second
letter taking it back.
Controversy Involving the Disability Clause
In 1981, after being shot by John Hinkley, President Reagan was rushed to the hospital and nearly died from blood loss.
The president did not invoke the 25th Amendment, though his aides intensively debated whether he should. In the White
House, Secretary of State Alexander Haig famously claimed that he "was in charge" pending the return of Vice President
Bush. In fact, in the event of a national security emergency, the vice president and the secretary of defense were" clearly
entrusted by Reagan to act in his absence," according to the latest edition of Edward S. Corwin's magisterial book, The
President.
In 1985 President Reagan again did not invoke the 25th Amendment, but he did at least seem to honor the intent of the
law by notifying the leaders of Congress by letter that he was turning power over to the vice president. That a president
can turn over his power without formally invoking the amendment is unclear and has never been tested in court. Oddly,
Vice President Bush was not immediately informed about the letter giving him the power of the presidency.
Eight hours after Mr. Reagan signed the letter he took back the power of the presidency by signing a second letter given
to him by White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan. The president was still groggy from the anesthesia and barely
managed to scribble his name. General John Hutton, the presidential physician, afterward told the New York Times that
the president signed the letter without his knowledge. "I would have waited at least a day," Hutton said. "I don't know
why his chief of staff insisted on him signing the letter so quickly." (NYT, Dec. 4, 1996)
President George Herbert Walker Bush fell seriously ill twice during his presidency. On neither occasion did he invoke the
25th Amendment. But in 1991, when he suffered from an irregular heartbeat, he announced that if he needed electric
shock therapy he would temporarily turn power over to Vice President Dan Quayle.
President Clinton never fell seriously ill during his presidency.
Both Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and Clinton made arrangements with their vice presidents in the event of
illness. These contingency plans were never invoked and remain secret.
In 1996 a panel of historians and former White House physicians issued a formal report recommending urgent changes in
the way presidential power is transferred in the event of disability. These changes, which the panel recommended should
be put into law, included: (1) a formal requirement that the president and vice president agree on a transfer-of-power
contingency plan prior to their inauguration; (2) the president's personal physician should make primary judgments about
the president's health; (3) the White House physician, who by tradition was a member of the White House Military Office,
should be given a formal title outside the chain of military command (for example: assistant to the president); (4) the
judgment of the president's physical abilities should be determined strictly on the basis of standard medical tests, and (5)
presidents should accurately disclose their medical condition, balancing their need for privacy against the public's need
for information.
Background to the 25th Amendment
When the office of vice president of the United States of America was created at the constitutional convention in 1787,
provisions were made for the vice president to take over in the event of death, disease, insanity, impeachment (with a
conviction) or other circumstances that could prevent the president from carrying out the duties of that office. The
language of original provisions, however, is confusing. Article II, Section I of the Constitution, reads as follows:
In Case of 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 questions surrounding this passage center on two words: "the Same." Did the framers of the Constitution intend for
these words to refer only to the "Powers and Duties" of the presidency, or to "said Office" itself? In other words, under
this article, could a vice president ever actually become the president, or could he only act as president?
2
When Vice President John Tyler took over following the 1841 death of President William Henry Harrison, he contended
that he had in fact become president, and even took the presidential oath. Though many constitutional scholars
protested that Tyler was wrong and that his only constitutional entitlement was to the office of acting president,
Congress and the Cabinet allowed Tyler to assume the title of President. Thus, the precedent was set. The eight vice
presidents to lay claim to the White House after the death of their presidents between 1841 and 1963 were all
recognized as legitimate presidents by government officials and the American public alike.
There was, however, a catch. Though Tyler and other "accidental presidents" were successful in asserting claims to the
presidency, later research established that the original intent of Article II, Section I, had in fact been to install the vice
president only as acting president in the event of presidential disaster, including death. The founding fathers had been,
at least in this instance, sloppy proofreaders, and the constitutional committee on style had unintentionally neglected to
remove the vague language, which caused problems for future generations of Americans.
After Tyler set the precedent of assuming not just the responsibilities, but also the title of president, troublesome
questions arose. What if Harrison had not died, but had remained too ill to fulfill his duties? If Tyler had claimed the
office, and then Harrison recovered, there would have been no constitutional mechanism for placing Harrison back in
office. With this scenario in mind, Chester A. Arthur assumed the title of acting president after James Garfield was shot.
Garfield did die, and only then was Arthur recognized as President. Following the example of Arthur, Thomas Marshall
likewise functioned as acting president while Woodrow Wilson was incapacitated for months. In that case, Wilson
recovered and resumed his duties, again the undisputed president. Still, the questions of what to call the vice president
under various circumstances continued to plague the administrations of other accidental presidents.
The first and only constitutional revision to affect the terms of the succession of a vice president to the presidency was
sparked by the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Approved by Congress and ratified in 1967, the 25th
Amendment counteracts the vagueness of Article II, Section I, by clearly stating that if the president dies, resigns, or is
removed from office, the vice president shall become president. If the president is alive but disabled, the vice president
becomes acting president. The president may declare himself unable to discharge the duties of office. Or, if the president
either cannot or will not declare himself disabled, the vice president may, under certain circumstances and with the
support of a majority of the heads of the executive departments or another specific governmental body determined by
Congress, declare the president disabled. The president may then at any time declare himself once again fit to serve in
office, upon which the president resumes all duties unless the vice president, again with a majority of department heads
or other appointed leaders, declares within four days that the president is still unfit for service. In that case, Congress
must meet within 21 days to decide. A two-thirds vote of Congress is then required to declare the president still unfit, in
which case the vice president is still the acting president. If the president is still alive and has neither resigned or been
successfully impeached, the vice president cannot put his nameplate on the Oval Office desk.
A further provision of the 25th Amendment provides for the replacement of vice presidents who are unable to continue in
office for any of the same reasons that might affect a president. If there is a vacancy in the office of vice president, the
successor is to be appointed by the president, who must gain majority approval of his choice from both the House and
the Senate. In the history of the United States, 37 years have been spent with no vice president, due to a combination of
deaths and resignations. This provision was necessary to ensure that there would always be a vice president waiting in
the wings should a presidential successor be needed.
The 25th Amendment was activated twice within 12 months, during 1973-1974. First, Spiro T. Agnew resigned from the
vice presidency. Nixon followed the amendment and appointed Gerald Ford to the post. Then Ford gained the presidency
when Nixon resigned. Ford then appointed Nelson Rockefeller as vice president. Rockefeller's nomination cleared
Congress only after an inquiry that lasted about four months. Many Americans were disturbed by the fact that neither the
president nor the vice president had been elected by a vote of the people. Though only extreme conditions would ever
necessitate such a double-activation of the 25th Amendment again, Americans must decide if the amendment is a
sufficient answer to the intricate problems of presidential succession.
3
PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION AND DISABILITY
Consider these facts. To this point, 47 people have served as Vice President. Of these, 14 have reached the Oval
Office—most recently, George H.W. Bush in 1989. Indeed, 5 of the last 12 Presidents were once Vice President.
Methods of Filling Vacancies
Presidential succession is the scheme by which a presidential vacancy is filled. If a President dies, resigns, or is
removed from office by impeachment, the Vice President succeeds to the office. Originally, the Constitution did not
provide for the succession of a Vice President. Rather, it declared that "the powers and duties" of the office—not
the office itself—were to "devolve on [transfer to] the Vice President" (read carefully Article II, Section 1, Clause
6).
In practice, however, the Vice President did succeed to the office when it became vacant. Vice President John Tyler
was the first to do so. He set the precedent in 1841 when he succeeded President William Henry Harrison, who
died of pneumonia just one month after taking office. What had been practice became a part of the written
Constitution with the 25th Amendment in 1967, which states, "In case of the removal of the President from office
or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President."
Order of Succession
According to Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, Congress fixes the order of succession following the
Vice President. The present law on the matter is the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. By its terms, the Speaker
of the House and then the president pro tempore of the Senate are next in line. They are followed, in turn, by the
Secretary of State and then by each of the other 14 heads of the Cabinet departments, in order of each position's
precedence—that is, the order in which their offices were created by Congress.
Disability of the President
Until the 25th Amendment was adopted in 1967, the arrangement for presidential succession had serious gaps.
Neither the Constitution nor Congress had made any provision for deciding when a President was so disabled that
he could not perform the duties of the office. Nor was there anything to indicate by whom such a decision was to
be made.
For nearly 180 years, then, the nation played with fate. President Eisenhower suffered three serious but temporary
illnesses while in office: a heart attack in 1955, ileitis in 1956, and a mild stroke in 1957. Two other Presidents
were disabled for much longer periods. James Garfield lingered for 80 days before he died from an assassin's bullet
in 1881. Woodrow Wilson suffered a paralytic stroke in September of 1919 and was an invalid for the rest of his
second term. In fact, he was so ill that he could not meet with his Cabinet for seven months after his stroke. And,
in 1981, Ronald Reagan was gravely wounded in an assassination attempt.
Filling the Disability Gap
Sections 3 and 4 of the 25th Amendment fill the disability gap, and in detail. The Vice President is to become
Acting President if (1) the President informs Congress, in writing, "that he is unable to discharge the powers and
duties of his office," or (2) the Vice President and a majority of the members of the Cabinet inform Congress, in
writing, that the President is so incapacitated.
The President may resume the powers and duties of the office by informing Congress by "written declaration" that
no inability exists. However, the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet may challenge the President on this
score. If they do, Congress has 21 days in which to decide the matter.
Transferring Power
Thus far, the disability provisions of the 25th Amendment have come into play on three occasions: In 1985, Ronald
Reagan transferred the powers of the presidency to Vice President George H.W. Bush for nearly eight hours, while
surgeons removed a tumor from Mr. Reagan's large intestine. In 2002, and again in 2007, President George W.
Bush conveyed his powers to Vice President Dick Cheney for some two hours, while Mr. Bush was anesthetized
during a routine medical procedure.
4
PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION ACT
Watch It! - Presidential Transportation (2:38) – Just for fun!
On July 18, 1947, President Harry S. Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act. This act revised an older
succession act that was passed in 1792 during George Washington’s first term.
The original succession act designated the Senate president pro tempore as the first in line to succeed the
president should he and the vice president die unexpectedly while in office. If he for some reason could not take
over the duties, the speaker of the house was placed next in the line of succession. In 1886, during Grover
Cleveland’s administration, Congress removed both the Senate president and the speaker of the house from the
line of succession. From that time until 1947, two cabinet officials, (their order in line depended on the order in
which the agencies were created) became the next in line to succeed a president should the vice president also
become incapacitated or die. The decision was controversial. Many members of Congress felt that those in a
position to succeed the president should be elected officials and not, as cabinet members were, political
appointees, thereby giving both Republican and Democratic parties a chance at controlling the White House.
In 1945, then-Vice President Truman assumed the presidency after Franklin Roosevelt died of a stroke during his
fourth term. As president, Truman advanced the view that the speaker of the house, as an elected official, should
be next in line to be president after the vice president. On July 18, 1947, he signed an act that resurrected the
original 1792 law, but placed the speaker ahead of the Senate president pro tempore in the hierarchy. Truman’s
critics at the time claimed that the president did so because he had a close friendship with then-Speaker Sam
Rayburn, and a less congenial relationship with Kenneth McKellar, the president pro tempore.
Fortunately for the country, there has never been an instance in which the presidency has had to pass to anyone
other than the vice president.
Order of presidential succession in America:
1.
The Vice President
2.
Speaker of the House
3.
President pro tempore of the Senate
4.
Secretary of State
5.
Secretary of the Treasury
6.
Secretary of Defense
7.
Attorney General (Head of the Justice
Department)
8.
Secretary of the Interior
9.
Secretary of Agriculture
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Secretary of Commerce
Secretary of Labor
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development
Secretary of Transportation
Secretary of Energy
Secretary of Education
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Secretary of Homeland Security
WHO IS THE DESIGNATED SURVIVOR?
In the United States, a designated survivor (or designated successor) is an individual in the presidential line of
succession, usually a member of the United States Cabinet, who is arranged to be at a physically distant, secure,
and undisclosed location when the President and the country's other top leaders (e.g., Vice President and Cabinet
members) are gathered at a single location, such as during State of the Union addresses and presidential
inaugurations. This is intended to maintain continuity of government in the event of a catastrophic occurrence that
kills many officials in the presidential line of succession. Were such an event to occur, killing both the President and
Vice President, the surviving official highest in the line, possibly the designated survivor, would become the Acting
President of the United States under the Presidential Succession Act.
Designated survivor for State of the Union Address (2:07)
How This Man Could Become President (1:23)
5
Civics
Unit 3
Name___________________________
Date_________________ Per._______
25TH AMENDMENT AND PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION
1. Why do you think we came up with the 25th Amendment in 1967? (Hint: think about what had just happened a
few years prior.)
2. In each scenario below, identify which section of the 25th Amendment would need to be implemented.
A) The President dies of natural causes.
B) Both the President and Vice President are killed in a plane crash.
C) The President has a stroke and is in a coma.
3. In what way did the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 and the 25th Amendment clarify the Constitution’s
handling of presidential vacancies?
4. Who is the “designated survivor” and why is s/he important?
6