The Twenty-fifth Amendment

The original Constitution said that on a President's death, resignation, removal, or inability, the powers and duties of the office would devolve on the Vice President, leaving unclear whether the Vice President became President or only acted as one, and how inability would be determined. John Tyler settled the first question by precedent in 1841, insisting he was fully President. Woodrow Wilson's incapacitating stroke in 1919 and Dwight Eisenhower's illnesses in the 1950s exposed the second, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, left the vice presidency vacant for more than a year. Senator Birch Bayh led the effort for reform.

Congress proposed the amendment on July 6, 1965, and it was ratified on February 10, 1967. Section 1 provides that the Vice President becomes President if the President is removed, dies, or resigns. Section 2 lets the President nominate a new Vice President when the office is vacant, subject to confirmation by a majority of both houses. Section 3 lets the President voluntarily transfer power to the Vice President by written declaration to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, and resume it by another declaration.

Section 4 lets the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet, or another body Congress designates, declare the President unable to serve, making the Vice President Acting President. If the President disputes the declaration, Congress decides, and a two-thirds vote of both houses is required to keep the Vice President in charge. Section 4 has never been invoked. Sections 2 and 3 have been used several times, including to make Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller Vice President in the 1970s, and are described in the entry on the amendment in practice.