Constitution
The Twenty-fifth Amendment: Presidential Succession and Disability
The Twenty-fifth Amendment settles who becomes President on a vacancy, how the Vice Presidency is filled, and what happens when a President cannot serve.
The text
Passed by Congress July 6, 1965. Ratified February 10, 1967.
Note: Article II, section 1, of the Constitution was affected by the 25th amendment.
Section 1.
In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
Section 2.
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.
Section 3.
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.
Section 4.
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 principal officers of the 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 twenty-one 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.
Note: Article II, section 1, of the Constitution was affected by the 25th amendment.
In plain English
Section 1: succession. If the President is removed, dies or resigns, the Vice President "shall become President." That settled a question Article II left unclear: whether the Vice President becomes President or only acts as one. John Tyler had set the precedent in 1841.
Section 2: Vice-Presidential vacancy. When the office of Vice President is vacant, the President nominates a successor, who takes office on confirmation by a majority of both houses.
Section 3: voluntary transfer. A President who declares in writing to the Speaker and the President pro tempore of the Senate that he is unable to discharge his duties transfers power to the Vice President as Acting President, until he declares that he is able to resume.
Section 4: involuntary transfer. The Vice President and a majority of the principal officers of the executive departments, or of another body Congress creates, may declare the President unable to serve. If the President disputes it, Congress decides; it takes two-thirds of both houses to keep the Vice President as Acting President.
Only Section 4 has never been invoked.
What the Founders said
Article II, Section 1 said that if the President were removed or unable to serve, the "Powers and Duties" would devolve on the Vice President. The text left it unclear whether the Vice President became President or acted as one, and whether the "Inability" had a procedure. The delegates at the Convention, notably John Dickinson, raised the question of who was to judge a President's inability. It was not answered.
The assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 exposed gaps: there was no Vice President for fifteen months, and the Speaker of the House was next in line. Congress proposed the Amendment in 1965 and the states ratified it in February 1967.
The Amendment drew on the experience of Woodrow Wilson's incapacity after his 1919 stroke and Dwight Eisenhower's illnesses.
How the courts have read it
- Courts have never decided a case under the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Its provisions have been used in practice, not litigated.
The record of use:
- Section 2 was used twice in 1973 and 1974: Gerald Ford succeeded Spiro Agnew as Vice President, and Nelson Rockefeller succeeded Ford after Richard Nixon resigned and Ford became President.
- Section 3 was invoked by Ronald Reagan in 1985, by George W. Bush in 2002 and 2007 for colonoscopies, and by Joe Biden in 2021 for a medical procedure.
- Section 4 has never been invoked, though it has been discussed on several occasions.
Why it matters now
Continuity of government is among the least glamorous constitutional questions and one of the most important. The Twenty-fifth Amendment supplies clear rules for transitions that would otherwise depend on improvisation in a crisis.
Section 4 is the most debated. It requires the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to agree that the President cannot discharge his duties, and then provides for a congressional supermajority to resolve a dispute. The high thresholds are deliberate. They prevent the provision from becoming a way for a President's subordinates to remove him over policy differences. Impeachment, not the Twenty-fifth Amendment, is the remedy for misconduct.
The Amendment is also an example of how the Constitution is meant to deal with gaps in its text: by amendment, with attention to what the Framers left unsettled. The precedent set by Tyler in 1841 had been an informal gloss. In 1967, the people wrote it down.