PRESIDENTIAL VACANCY AND DISABILITY

TWENTY-FIFTH AMENDMENT

SECTIONS 1–4. In case of the removal of the President from

office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

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.

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.

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 principle officers of the

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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 twentyone 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’s lying in a coma

for eighty days before succumbing to the effects of 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

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INABILITY
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.

The 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

to succeed him, following the procedures of § 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 § 2 of the Amendment, President Ford nominated Nelson A.

Rockefeller 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).

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INABILITY