Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The **Twenty-fifth Amendment** (**Amendment XXV**) to the United States Constitution says that if the President becomes unable to do his or her job, the Vice President becomes the President (Section 1) or Acting President (Sections 3 or 4).  This can happen for a short period of time, if the President is just sick or disabled for a short time.  It could also happen until the end of the President's term (the President's time in office), if the President died, resigned, or is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office".

The Twenty-fifth Amendment also says what should happen if there is a "" in the Vice President's office (meaning there is no Vice President).

The Amendment was ratified by the states and became part of the U.S. Constitution on February 10, 1967.

## Background
Article Two, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution says:

This means that if the President is fired, dies, resigns, or is unable "to discharge [their] Powers and Duties" (unable to do the things a President has to do), the Vice President will take over their job.  The Vice President will do the President's job until they get better (if they are just sick or disabled), or until the next Presidential election (if the President resigned or is dead).  If neither the President nor the Vice President can do the President's job, Congress can decide who takes over the President's job.  This is all the Constitution says about this subject. Also, after Harrison died, his Cabinet had met and decided that Vice President John Tyler would become "Vice-President Acting President." However, Tyler did not like this idea.  He announced that he had become the President, and was not just doing the old President's job.  He refused to look at any papers that were addressed to him as "Acting President."

Tyler took the Presidential Oath, moved into the White House, and took over all of the old President's powers.  Nobody   Tyler's claim to the Presidency.  Eventually, both Houses of Congress passed a resolution saying that Tyler was the tenth President of the United States.  This created "the precedent of full succession."  A precedent is a rule or law that might be followed in the future if a similar situation came up again.  "Full succession" means that the Vice President would become the President, not Acting President, if the actual President died.  The "precedent of full succession" became known as the "Tyler Precedent."

At other times, Presidents did not die, but they were unable to do their jobs because of illness.  For example, during his Presidency, Woodrow Wilson had a stroke.  However, the First Lady, Edith Wilson, and the official White House doctor kept the stroke a secret.  Because of this, no one took over the Presidency, even though Wilson could not do the job at that time.

Before the 25th Amendment, the office of Vice President had been empty eighteen times because the Vice President died, resigned, or had to take over for the President.  For example, there was no Vice President for nearly four years after Franklin D. Roosevelt died.  The new President, Lyndon B. Johnson, had previously had a heart attack in 1955 along with a family history of Johnson men dying relatively young (in their early 60s, which he did in 1973 aged 64). The next two people in line for the presidency were the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John McCormack and the President pro tempore of the Senate, Carl Hayden (who was 86 years old).  Congress started moving more quickly.

### Proposals
 wrote the Senate version of the Twenty-fifth Amendment]]
Members of Congress suggested two different amendments to fill in the details missing from Clause 6.

**The KeatingKefauver Proposal** suggested allowing Congress to make a law about who should decide when a President is disabled.  It was proposed in 1963 by Senator Kenneth Keating of New York,pp.&nbsp;30–35

**The BayhCeller Proposal** ended up becoming the Twenty-fifth Amendment. On January 6, 1965, Senator Birch Bayh proposed the amendment in the United States Senate, and Representative Emanuel Celler (Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee) proposed it in the United States House of Representatives. On July 6, 1965, both Houses of Congress passed the final version of the amendment and sent it to the states for ratification.

## Ratification
As with all Constitutional amendments proposed by the Congress, the Twenty-fifth Amendment had to be  ratified by three-fourths of the states (38 of 50). Ratification was complete 19 months after the Amendment was proposed. Another nine states subsequently also ratified the Amendment; three states did not vote to ratify the Amendment.

## Approved text
## Effects
 is sworn in as President after Nixon's resignation]]
### Section 1: Presidential succession
Section 1 made the "Tyler Precedent" a law.  It says that if a President is removed from office, dies, or resigns, the Vice President immediately becomes President (not "Acting President").  It allows other executive officials to declare the President unable to do their job.  The Vice President must agree to do this.  So must:  Vice President Gerald Ford became President as soon as Nixon resigned.  Two days later, President Richard Nixon nominated United States Representative Gerald Ford of Michigan to be the new Vice President.

When Gerald Ford became President after Richard Nixon resigned, the Vice Presidency became vacant. On August 20, 1974, the new President Ford nominated former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to be the new Vice President.

Two letters were created.  The first invoked Section 3 and said Reagan would be unable to discharge his duties.

Reagan's autobiography, and other books, argue that Reagan clearly meant to give power to Vice President Bush.pp.&nbsp;197–200  The White House lawyer, Fred Fielding, said:

However, since Reagan did not specifically mention Section 3 and say he could not do his job as President, he did not  invoke the 25th Amendment.  After about two hours, Bush was awake and took back the Presidency.

On July 21, 2007, President Bush again invoked Section 3 to receive another colonoscopy.  Again, Cheney was Acting President for about two hours, until Bush was ready to take back the Presidency.

**Kamala Harris (2021)**

On November 19, 2021, President Joe Biden transferred presidential power to his vice president, Kamala Harris, between 10:10am and 11:35am while he underwent a colonoscopy. During this procedure, Harris became the first woman to hold the power of the presidency.

### Considered use of Section 4
As of 2024, Section 4 has never been invoked, however there were at least two occasions where the use of Section 4 was considered and another where its non-use came under substantial criticism. These occurred during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

#### 1981: Reagan assassination attempt
On March 30, 1981, a man named John Hinckley tried to kill President Ronald Reagan.  Reagan was shot and needed immediate surgery, so he could not invoke Section 3 to give power to his Vice President.  His Vice President, George H.W. Bush, did not invoke Section 4, because he was on an airplane returning from Texas.  Reagan was out of surgery by the time Bush got to Washington, D.C.

#### 1987: Reagan accused of not doing his job
In 1987, Reagan's Chief of Staff, Donald Regan, resigned.

According to the PBS program *American Experience*:

In an interview on the program, Edmund Morris, who had written a biography of Reagan, said:

## Notes
## References