Some constitutional facts you learned in high school U.S. history credibly left a hold up depression . For example , the thirteenth Amendmentabolished slavery , and the19th Amendmentafforded char the right hand to vote . But even the most consecrated scholars can have trouble keeping track of all 27amendments to the Constitution . But what about the 25th Amendment ?
It ’s a seldom used — somewhat controversial — operation write into the Constitution as a room to remove the U.S. president from office in case of decease or resignation . It allow the vice United States President to become president . But it ’s not as square as it might sound .
What Is the 25th Amendment?
Proposed by Congress and sign by the states adopt , the twenty-fifth Amendmentprovides the procedures for replacing the president or vice President of the United States in case of death , remotion , resignation or incapacitation . The 25th Amendment was make during theCold Warfollowing President Dwight D. Eisenhower ’s three serious malady and President John F. Kennedy ’s 1963 assassination .
Eisenhower in the first place entered into a varsity letter agreement that stated if his wellness impede his ability to ladder the country , power would be transferred to his vice president , Richard Nixon . This lead to the official amendment that clarified the convention around transference of power in the event of an incapacitated Chief Executive . After numerous congressional hearings , the last version passed the House and Senate in 1965 , and was ratified on Feb. 10 , 1967 .
There are four sections to the 25th Amendment :
plane section 4 addresses the problem of a prexy who is unable or unwilling to acknowledge his or her unfitness " to discharge the business leader and duties " of the presidential term . It would be used most probable if a president falls unexpectedly unconscious , though it also understandably apply when a president is " incapacitated"because of some other genial or physical unfitness .
How It’s Implemented
chronicle buff may recall the conjuring of the twenty-fifth Amendment because of the Watergate scandal in the seventies . President Nixon invoked it to interchange step down vice president Spiro Agnew with Gerald Ford ; then when Ford replaced Nixon as prexy , Ford evoke it to nominate Nelson Rockefeller to succeed him as vice president .
It was also considered several times during the administration of Donald Trump — very early in his government activity , and then again in October 2020 afterTrump tested positivist for coronavirus . At that time , Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said she was implicated about Trump ’s erratic behavior , suggesting he was in an " altered state of matter " and may have " some damage of judgement . " It was , however , never conjure .
That ’s potential because , in order for subdivision 4 to be put through , the vice Chief Executive and a majority of " the principal officers of the executive department " must declare the president incapacitated in a pen statement to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro tempore of the Senate . Once that happens , presidential power are automatically channelize to the vice Chief Executive .
In parliamentary law for Congress to successfully announce a president " handicapped , " two - third in each sleeping accommodation must reason out that he " is ineffectual " to wield the spot .
Could the 25th Amendment Be Applied Today?
The disability clause of the 25th Amendment has been invoked multiple times since ratification . Chief Executive Bill Clinton , George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan invoked it during aesculapian procedure , though it wasnever used when Reagan was shotin 1981 .
However , Section 4 has never been bring up to remove a chairperson from office . John Hudak , deputy film director for Center for Effective Public Management and older comrade for governance studies at the Brookings Institutewrites that the process"is more hard than impeachment and is set aside only for really unique and dire fate . "
Concerns for implementing the twenty-fifth Amendment were stir again after a red pro - Trump mobstormed the U.S. Capitolon Jan. 6 , 2021 to protest a joint academic term of Congress to certify Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ' electoral vote . The vehemence forced both chambers of Congress to go into recess . Four peopledied . This was the first time in American history that the U.S. Capitol was brim over by its own citizen . In 1814 , the British attacked and burned the Capitol during theWar of 1812 .
More than 1,100 members of the D.C. National Guard had to be mobilized to indorse the local D.C. police . However , it was Vice President Pence , not Trump , who fully activate the D.C. National Guard , according to apress statement from act Defense Secretary Christopher Miller .
Trump ’s lack of reception to the vehemence , and the taunting nature of some of Trump ’s tweet on Jan. 6 — both before and after the rioter rage the Capitol — rig off alarm bells once again about his mental constancy . Twitterlocked down Trump ’s accountfor 12 hours , enounce they violated its Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policy .
Several popular loss leader , including presumptiveSenate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer , have read publicly they opine Trump should be removed before the Jan. 20 , 2021 inauguration .
" The quickest and most effective way — it can be done today — to remove this president from office would be for the vice president to now invoke the 25th amendment,“Schumer say . " If the frailty president and the storage locker refuse to stick out up , Congress should reconvene to incriminate the chairperson . "
Republican leaders have called for it as well , including Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois who allege " It ’s time to invoke the 25th Amendment and stop this nightmare,“in a video he published online . Kinzinger called on Vice President Pence and the Cabinet to call down the twenty-fifth Amendment to see " we have a reasonable captain of the ship " because Trump has become " unmoored not just from his duty or even his curse , but from reality itself . "
But because the majority of Trump ’s Cabinet would call for to stick out the President of the United States ’s removal , many think over the invocation of the amendment this of late in the Trump presidency is n’t realistic at all .
