Any American schoolkid can say you what happens when there ’s an unexpected vacancy in the Oval Office . If the prexy of the United States leaves government agency during his terminus — dies ( it ’s fall out eight times , four times through assassination ) , resigns ( once , Richard Nixon ) , is incapacitated in some way ( never ) or is removed from office ( never ) — his right - handwriting human , thevice chairman , slides over into the big chair . It ’s mightily there inArticle II , plane section 1 , article 6of theU.S. Constitution .
But what happens when the veep ’s chairperson opens up , either because he ’s " promoted " to United States President or something happens to him while he ’s No . 2 ? ( Note : Yes , all the virile pronouns still apply as of this writing . )
Those circumstances are provide for in the25th Amendmentto the Constitution , which was pop off in 1967 . plane section 2 states :
" Whenever there is a void in the office of the Vice President , the President shall appoint a Vice President who shall take office upon check by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress . "
So whether the VP becomes president — and the 25th Amendment clarifies that the second - in - guardianship does n’t justassumethe duties of the president , he ( or , maybe someday , she ) " shallbecomepresident " — or the VP just vacates the office for some other reason , the president has the right to nominate a sidekick , which the House and the Senate must then corroborate .
It might vocalise dim-witted , but exchange a VP always has been a little sketchy . An unplanned presidential vacuum is immediately taken care of through Article II and thepresidential parentage of sequence ; it goes VP , utterer of the house , president pro tempore of the senate , secretary of state , aright down the line to the young cabinet situation established , the secretary of native land security .
Until the twenty-fifth Amendment , though , when a vice presidential vacancy pop up , the new president ( sometimes the honest-to-goodness VP ) just leave that No . 2 chair subject until a new election . John Tyler , who consider over for William Henry Harrison ( who die out of pneumonia just 31 day into his condition ) , never had a VP in almost four long time as president . Lyndon Johnson , who took over for John F. Kennedy in November 1963 , was without a VP for more than a year until Hubert H. Humphrey filled the spot after the 1964 election .
Even after the 25th Amendment , fill up a vice presidential opening move has n’t been particularly snappy . It ’s happen twice since the 25th ’s passage in ' 67 .
The office of vice President of the United States was empty for a couple of months in 1973 after Nixon ’s frailty prexy , Spiro Agnew , resigned , until Gerald Ford was cleared to fill the post . When Nixon after quit in August 1974 , and Ford became president , he had no frailty president for more than four calendar month , until Nelson Rockefeller in the end was confirmed by Congress .
Through the years , the president and lawmakers have worked to grant the No . 2 spot in the executive branch more power , culminating in a constitutional amendment that endeavor to see to it that the office is always filled . So no matter what happens in the messy world of political science these days , a chairperson will have a frailty president by his side — sooner or later .
