The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: Show
The Twenty-fifth Amendment was proposed on July 6, 1965, and ratified on February 10, 1967. The amendment establishes the procedure for replacing the president or vice president when either office is vacant. The amendment, which was proposed in the aftermath of the assassination of President JOHN F. KENNEDY in 1963, has been used during the presidential terms of RICHARD M. NIXON, GERALD R. FORD, and RONALD REAGAN. Section 1 of the amendment states that in the event of "the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President." This section reaffirmed a precedent set by Vice President JOHN TYLER, in 1841, when President WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON died after only one month in office. Tyler rejected the concept of serving as acting president during the remaining 47 months of Harrison's term. Instead, he announced that he would assume the full duties and powers of the office and become president. Section 2 of the amendment established a new procedure for selecting a vice president if a vacancy occurs. This section was enacted in reaction to the situation after the Kennedy assassination. When Vice President LYNDON B. JOHNSON assumed the presidency on November 22, 1963, the Constitution left the office of vice president unfilled. Under the Constitution, if Johnson had died or been removed from office, his successor would have been the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who at the time was John McCormick, then in his eighties. Section 2 permits the president to choose a vice president, subject to confirmation by a majority vote of both houses of Congress. Section 2 was used twice in the 1970s in the wake of political scandals in the Nixon administration. In 1973, Gerald R. Ford became the first person chosen as vice president using this method. Nixon appointed Ford to replace Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, who resigned in the face of criminal BRIBERY charges. When Nixon resigned in August 1974 because of the WATERGATE scandal, Ford became president. Ford then appointed Nelson A. Rockefeller as vice president under the authority of Section 2. Sections 3 and 4 of the amendment deal with presidential disability. Several presidents have been temporarily disabled during their terms of office, but until the amendment, the Constitution contained no provision for the temporary replacement of a disabled president and provided no guidance as to who would have actual decision-making authority should the president become disabled. President WOODROW WILSON, for example, was seriously disabled by a stroke in 1919 and was totally incapacitated for a number of weeks. His wife, Edith, took on much of the responsibility of the office, an arrangement that aroused sharp criticism. Section 3 deals with a situation in which the president communicates in writing to Congress that he is "unable to discharge the powers and duties" of the office. The vice president then assumes the role of acting president. The vice president continues in this role unless and until the president is able to transmit a declaration to the contrary. Section 4 deals with the more difficult situation of a president who is unable or unwilling to acknowledge the inability to perform the duties of the office. The section authorizes the vice president and a majority of the presidential cabinet members to determine whether the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office. If they agree that the president is incapacitated, the vice president immediately becomes acting president. The president may transmit to Congress a statement declaring that no inability exists and resume the duties of president. The vice president and the majority of the cabinet, however, may send a declaration to Congress within four days disputing the assertion of the president that he is able to discharge the duties of the office. If this happens, Congress must vote by a two-thirds majority in both houses that the president is unable to serve. Otherwise, the president will reassume office. The disability procedures were used for eight hours on July 13, 1985, when President Reagan underwent surgery for cancer. Vice President GEORGE H.W. BUSH temporarily assumed the powers and duties of the office as acting president. Section 4 was also invoked on June 29, 2002, when President GEORGE W. BUSH, who was set to undergo a colonoscopy, temporarily transferred power to Vice President Dick Cheney. Vice President Cheney acted as president from 7:09 A.M. until 9:24 A.M.., when President Bush transmitted a letter announcing that he was resuming his duties. chameleon as a person personality 1. What did God decide to make in Paradise?? Jospeh Preistley did not combined the nine gases he discovered but isolated one from the other to describe their properties if the plants don't get water they die Please help me to guys i need it asap For your assignment: 1.Review and study the Tenses of Verbs. 2. List down 20 action verbs in your notebook. 12. James remove the old plant transfer old plant Which is NOT an element in information literacy? A. Encode information B. Use the new knowledge C. Search for information D. Determine sources of info … choose the letter of the best answer write the chosen letter on a separate sheet of paper please someone help me to this right now! The Twenty-fifth Amendment (Amendment XXV) to the United States Constitution deals with presidential succession and disability.
It clarifies that the vice president becomes president if the president dies, resigns, or is removed from office, and establishes how a vacancy in the office of the vice president can be filled.
It also provides for the temporary transfer of the president's powers and duties to the vice president, either on the initiative of the president alone or on the initiative of the vice president together with a majority of the president's cabinet. In either case, the vice president becomes acting president until the presidential powers and duties are returned to the president.
The amendment was submitted to the states on July 6, 1965, by the 89th Congress and was adopted on February 10, 1967, the day that the requisite number of states (38) had ratified it.[1]
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 1 clarifies that in the enumerated situations the vice president becomes president, instead of merely assuming the powers and duties of the presidency as acting president.[2] It operates automatically, without needing to be explicitly invoked.[3]: 108 Section 2: Vice presidential vacancy
Section 2 provides a mechanism for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency. Before the Twenty-fifth Amendment a vice presidential vacancy continued until a new vice president took office at the start of the next presidential term; the vice presidency had become vacant several times due to death, resignation, or succession to the presidency, and these vacancies had often lasted several years.[2] Section 3: President's declaration of inability
Section 3 allows for the voluntary transfer of presidential authority to the vice president (for example, in anticipation of a medical procedure) by the president declaring in writing to be unable to discharge the powers and duties of the presidency. The vice president then assumes those powers and duties as acting president;[note 1] the vice president does not become president and the president remains in office, although without authority. The president regains those powers and duties upon declaring, in writing, to be again able to discharge them.[3]: 112-3 Section 4: Declaration by vice president and cabinet members of president's inability
Section 4 addresses the case of a president who is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the presidency but cannot, or does not, execute the voluntary declaration contemplated by Section 3.[3]: 117 It allows the vice president, together with a "majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide",[note 3] to issue a written declaration that the president is unable to discharge his duties. Immediately upon such a declaration being sent to Congress, the vice president becomes acting president[note 4] while (as with Section 3) the president remains in office, albeit temporarily divested of authority.[9] John Feerick, the principal drafter of the amendment,[3]: xii,xx [4]: 5 [10] writes that Congress deliberately left the terms unable and inability undefined "since cases of inability could take various forms not neatly fitting into [a rigid] definition ... The debates surrounding the Twenty-fifth Amendment indicate that [those terms] are intended to cover all cases in which some condition or circumstance prevents the President from discharging his powers and duties ..." [3]: 112 A survey of scholarship on the amendment found
Among potential examples of such unforeseen emergencies, legal scholars have listed kidnapping of the president and "political emergencies" such as impeachment. Traits such as unpopularity, incompetence, impeachable conduct, poor judgment, or laziness might not in and of themselves constitute inability, but should such traits "rise to a level where they prevented the President from carrying out his or her constitutional duties, they still might constitute an inability, even in the absence of a formal medical diagnosis." In addition, a president who already manifested disabling traits at the time he or she was elected is not thereby immunized from a declaration of inability.[4]: 21n63,22n67 The "principal officers of the executive departments" are the fifteen Cabinet members enumerated in the United States Code at 5 U.S.C. § 101:[11][12]
Acting secretaries can participate in issuing the declaration.[3]: 117-8 [4]: 13 If the president subsequently issues a declaration claiming to be able, then a four-day period begins during which the vice president remains acting president.[3]: 118-9 [4]: 38n137 If by the end of this period the vice president and a majority of the "principal officers" have not issued a second declaration of the president's inability, then the president resumes his powers and duties; but if they do issue a second declaration within the four days, then the vice president remains acting president while Congress considers the matter. Then if within 21 days the Senate and the House determine, each by a two-thirds vote, that the president is unable, then the vice president continues as acting president; otherwise the president resumes his powers and duties.[note 5] Section 4's requirement of a two-thirds vote of the House and a two-thirds vote of the Senate is more strict than the Constitution's requirement for impeachment and removal of the president for "high crimes and misdemeanors" – a majority of the House followed by two-thirds of the Senate.[3]: 120n [14][15][16] In addition, an impeached president retains his authority unless and until the Senate votes to remove him or her at the end of an impeachment trial; in contrast, should Congress be called upon to decide the question of the president's ability or inability under Section 4, presidential authority remains in the hands of the vice president (as acting president) unless and until the question is resolved in the president's favor.[3]: 118–20 Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution reads:
This provision is ambiguous as to whether, in the enumerated circumstances, the vice president becomes the president, or merely assumes the "powers and duties" of the presidency. It also fails to define what constitutes inability, or how questions concerning inability are to be resolved.[17] The Twenty-fifth Amendment addressed these deficiencies.[2] The ambiguities in Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution regarding death, resignation, removal, or disability of the president created difficulties several times: On the death of William Henry Harrison, John Tyler (pictured) became the first vice president to succeed to the presidency.
In 1963, Senator Kenneth Keating of New York proposed a Constitutional amendment which would have enabled Congress to enact legislation providing for how to determine when a president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the presidency, rather than, as the Twenty-fifth Amendment does, having the Constitution so provide.[25]: 345 This proposal was based upon a recommendation of the American Bar Association in 1960.[25]: 27 The text of the proposal read:[25]: 350
Senators raised concerns that the Congress could either abuse such authority,[25]: 30 or neglect to enact any such legislation after the adoption of this proposal.[25]: 34–35 Tennessee senator Estes Kefauver, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, a long-time advocate for addressing the disability question, spearheaded the effort until he died in August 1963.[25]: 28 Senator Keating was defeated in the 1964 election, but Senator Roman Hruska of Nebraska took up Keating's cause as a new member of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments.[24] Kennedy assassinationBy the 1960s, medical advances had made increasingly plausible that an injured or ill president might live a long time while incapacitated. The assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 underscored the need for a clear procedure for determining presidential disability,[26] particularly since the new president, Lyndon Johnson, had once suffered a heart attack[27] and – with the office of vice president to remain vacant until the next term began on January 20, 1965 – the next two people in the line of succession were the 71-year-old speaker of the House John McCormack[26][28] and the 86-year-old Senate president pro tempore Carl Hayden.[26][28] Senator Birch Bayh succeeded Kefauver as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments and set about advocating for a detailed amendment dealing with presidential disability.[26] Bayh–Celler proposalThe Twenty-fifth Amendment in the National Archives
On January 6, 1965, Senator Birch Bayh proposed S.J. Res. 1 in the Senate and Representative Emanuel Celler (Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee) proposed H.J. Res. 1 in the House of Representatives. Their proposal specified the process by which a president could be declared "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office", thereby making the vice president an acting president, and how the president could regain the powers of their office. Also, their proposal provided a way to fill a vacancy in the office of vice president before the next presidential election. This was as opposed to the Keating–Kefauver proposal, which neither provided for filling a vacancy in the office of vice president prior to the next presidential election, nor provided a process for determining presidential disability. In 1964, the American Bar Association endorsed the type of proposal which Bayh and Celler advocated.[25]: 348–350 On January 28, 1965, President Johnson endorsed S.J. Res. 1 in a statement to Congress.[24] Their proposal received bipartisan support.[5]: 6 On February 19, the Senate passed the amendment, but the House passed a different version of the amendment on April 13. On April 22 it was returned to the Senate with revisions.[24] There were four areas of disagreement between the House and Senate versions:
On July 6, after a conference committee ironed out differences between the versions,[29] the final version of the amendment was passed by both Houses of the Congress and presented to the states for ratification.[25]: 354–358 RatificationNebraska was the first state to ratify, on July 12, 1965, and ratification became complete when Nevada became the 38th state to ratify, on February 10, 1967.[note 6] When President Lyndon B. Johnson underwent planned surgery in 1965, he was unable to temporarily transfer power to Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey because ratification remained incomplete. On February 23, 1967, at the White House ceremony certifying the ratification, Johnson said:
On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned; two days later President Richard Nixon nominated Representative Gerald Ford to replace Agnew as new vice president pursuant to Section 2. Ford was confirmed by the Senate and the House on November 27 and December 6 respectively, and sworn in December 6.[33] On August 9, 1974 Nixon resigned and Ford became president under Section 1; Ford is the only president to have been elected neither president nor vice president.[34] The office of vice president was thus again vacant, and on August 20 President Ford nominated former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller.[3]: 167–169 Rockefeller was confirmed by the Senate and the House on December 10 and 19 respectively, and sworn in December 19.[3]: 186–187 Feerick writes that the Twenty-fifth Amendment helped pave the way for Nixon's resignation during the Watergate scandal. Nixon and Agnew were Republicans, and in the months immediately following Agnew's resignation, with the vice presidency empty, removal or resignation of Nixon would have transferred the presidential powers to House Speaker Carl Albert, a Democrat. But once Ford (a Republican) became vice president under Section 2, removal of Nixon became more palatable because it would, now, not result in a change in the party holding the presidency, and therefore "the momentum for exposing the truth about Nixon's involvement in Watergate increased." [3]: 158 Section 3On December 22, 1978, President Jimmy Carter considered invoking Section 3 in advance of hemorrhoid surgery.[35] Since then, presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama also considered invoking Section 3 at various times without doing so.[36] 1985: George H. W. BushOn July 12, 1985, President Ronald Reagan underwent a colonoscopy and was diagnosed with bowel cancer. He elected to have the lesion removed immediately,[37] and consulted with White House counsel Fred Fielding about whether to invoke Section 3, and in particular about whether doing so would set an undesirable precedent. Fielding and White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan recommended that Reagan transfer power, and two letters were drafted: one specifically invoking Section 3, the other mentioning only that Reagan was mindful of its provisions. On July 13, Reagan signed the second letter[38] before being placed under general anesthesia for a colectomy,[39] and Vice President George H. W. Bush was acting president from 11:28 a.m. until 7:22 p.m., when Reagan transmitted a letter declaring himself able to resume his duties.[40] In the Fordham Law Review, commentator John Feerick asserted that although Reagan disclaimed any use of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in his letter (likely out of "fear of the reaction of the country and the world to a 'President' who admitted to being disabled, and concern ... [over] set[ting] a harmful precedent"), he followed the process set forth in Section 3. Furthermore, Feerick noted that "no constitutional provision except the Twenty-Fifth Amendment would have allowed" him to designate the vice president as acting president. Reagan later stated in a memoir that he had, in fact, invoked the Twenty-fifth Amendment.[41] 2002: Dick CheneyOn June 29, 2002, President George W. Bush explicitly invoked Section 3 in temporarily transferring his powers to Vice President Dick Cheney before undergoing a colonoscopy, which began at 7:09 a.m. Bush awoke about forty minutes later, but did not resume his presidential powers until 9:24 a.m. to ensure any aftereffects had cleared.[38][42] According to his staff, Acting President Cheney held his regular national security and homeland security meetings with aides at the White House, but made no appearances and took no recorded actions while being acting president.[42] In the view of commentator Adam Gustafson, this confident application of Section 3 "rectified" President Reagan's "ambivalent invocation" and provided an example of a "smooth and temporary transition" under Section 3 that paved the way for future applications. Together with the 2007 invocation, it established the reasonableness of invocation for relatively minor inabilities, promoting continuity in the Executive Branch.[43] 2007: Dick CheneyOn July 21, 2007, Bush again invoked Section 3 before another colonoscopy. Cheney was acting president from 7:16 a.m. until 9:21 a.m.[38] During that time, Vice President Cheney (as acting president) remained at home.[43] This 2007 invocation and the 2002 invocation received relatively little attention in the press overall.[43] 2021: Kamala HarrisOn November 19, 2021, President Joe Biden temporarily transferred his powers and duties to Vice President Kamala Harris before undergoing a colonoscopy, making her acting president from 10:10 a.m. until 11:35 a.m.[44][45] Harris is the first woman to hold the powers and duties of the U.S. presidency.[46][47] Section 4Section 4 has never been invoked, though on several occasions its use was considered. 1981: Reagan assassination attemptDraft Section 3 letter prepared (though never signed) after Ronald Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981 Draft Section 4 letter prepared (though never signed) after Ronald Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981 Following the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981, Vice President George H. W. Bush did not assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president. Reagan had been rushed into surgery with no opportunity to invoke Section 3; Bush did not invoke Section 4 because he was on a plane at the time of the shooting, and Reagan was out of surgery by the time Bush landed in Washington.[48] In 1995, Birch Bayh, the primary sponsor of the amendment in the Senate, wrote that Section 4 should have been invoked.[49] Physician to the President Daniel Ruge, who supervised Reagan's treatment immediately after the shooting, said he had erred by not having Reagan invoke Section 3 because the president needed general anesthesia and was in an intensive care unit.[50] 1987: Reagan's possible incapacityFrom the end of the 1980s onwards, Reagan's political opponents alleged that he showed signs of dementia.[51] According to Reagan biographer Edmund Morris, staffers to White House chief of staff Howard Baker intended to use their first meeting with Reagan in 1987 to evaluate whether he was "losing his mental grip". However, Reagan "came in stimulated by the press of all these new people and performed splendidly".[52][53][54] Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1994, five years after leaving office.[55] The president told neurosurgeon Daniel Ruge, according to Ruge in 1980, that he expected doctors to test his memory, and promised to resign if it deteriorated. After the 1994 diagnosis, Ruge said he never found any sign of Alzheimer's while talking to him almost every day from 1981 to 1985.[50] 2017: Trump fires James ComeyAfter President Donald Trump dismissed FBI director James Comey in May 2017, acting FBI director Andrew McCabe claimed that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein held high-level discussions within the Justice Department about approaching Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet about possibly invoking Section 4.[56] Miles Taylor, who anonymously authored "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration" and A Warning, also wrote that he and other aides considered approaching Pence to invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment.[57] A spokesperson later said that Rosenstein denied pursuing the Twenty-fifth Amendment, and Pence strongly denied considering invoking Section 4.[57][58] On March 15, 2019, Senator Lindsey Graham stated the Senate Judiciary Committee would investigate the discussions and seek related documents.[59] 2021: Trump and the storming of the CapitolAfter the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, President Trump was accused of having incited the incident,[60][61][62] leading to several calls for Section 4 to be invoked. Proponents included Representatives Ted Lieu and Charlie Crist, former Defense Secretary William Cohen, and the National Association of Manufacturers (which asked Vice President Pence to "seriously consider" invoking the amendment).[63] By evening, some of Trump's Cabinet members were also reportedly considering invoking Section 4.[64] In a New York magazine article, law professor Paul Campos also supported using Section 4 "immediately" and "for the good of the nation."[65] On January 7, incoming Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi also called for Section 4 to be invoked.[66][67]
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Page 2You do not have permission to edit this page, for the following reasons: You can view and copy the source of this page: == Text and effect == === Section 1: Presidential succession === {{Further|United States presidential line of succession}} {{quote box|align=center|'''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 1 clarifies that in the enumerated situations the vice president becomes president, instead of merely assuming the powers and duties of the presidency as acting president.<ref name="auto1" /> It operates automatically, without needing to be explicitly invoked.{{r|feerick_complete|p=108}} === Section 2: Vice presidential vacancy === {{Further|Vice President of the United States#Vacancies}} {{quote box|align=center|'''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 2 provides a mechanism for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency. Before the Twenty-fifth Amendment a vice presidential vacancy continued until a new vice president took office at the start of the next presidential term; the vice presidency had become vacant several times due to death, resignation, or succession to the presidency, and these vacancies had often lasted several years.<ref name="auto1" /> === Section 3: President's declaration of inability === {{quote box|align=center|'''Section 3'''. Whenever the President transmits to the [[President pro tempore of the United States Senate|President pro tempore of the Senate]] and the [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|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 3 allows for the voluntary transfer of presidential authority to the vice president (for example, in anticipation of a medical procedure) by the president declaring in writing to be unable to discharge the powers and duties of the presidency. The vice president then assumes those powers and duties as acting president;{{NoteTag|As acting president, the vice president may employ "all the powers and tools of the office of the president", taking actions such as moving troops, reporting on the [[state of the Union]], proposing budgets, nominating judges, and removing cabinet secretaries.{{r|readers|p=44}} But it is unclear whether the vice president, while acting president, retains all the powers and duties of the vice presidency; for example, authorities express reservation as to whether the vice president would continue to preside over the Senate, especially since doing so could put him or her in the position of overseeing the Senate's deliberations on the validity of his or her determination, under Section{{nbsp}}4, that the president is unable to discharge his or her duties.{{r|feerick_complete|p=44n155}} Article{{nbsp}}I, Section{{nbsp}}3, clause{{nbsp}}5 of the Constitution provides that, "The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States."{{hsp}}{{r|overview|p=3}} }} the vice president does not become president and the president remains in office, although without authority. The president regains those powers and duties upon declaring, in writing, to be again able to discharge them.{{r|feerick_complete|p=112-3}} === Section 4: Declaration by vice president and cabinet members of president's inability === {{quote box|align=center|'''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. {{pb}} 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{{NoteTag| Here the word ''department'' should read ''departments''. Feerick has written that on the very day the Senate was to vote on the amendment, "<!--I remember being startled again when, at the last moment, -->I noticed a [[scrivener]]'s error in the draft of the [[United States congressional conference committee|conference report]]. When I reached [[Birch Bayh|Senator Bayh]]'s staff by telephone, possibly on July 6, with my observation, I was told that the amendment had just been approved that day by the Senate, 68 to 5, and was on its way to the states for ratification. In other words, the amendment was beyond rescue for correction."{{hsp}}{{r|personal|p=1101}} }}<ref>Bayh, Birch and Constitutional Amendments Subcommittee; Committee on the Judiciary. Senate. United States., "Selected Materials on the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, Senate Document No. 93-42." (1973). [https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/twentyfifth_amendment_congressional_materials/17/ Congressional Materials. 17.]</ref> 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.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8548|title=H.R.8548 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of the Office Act|first=Jamie|last=Raskin|date=October 9, 2020|website=www.congress.gov}}</ref>}} Section 4 addresses the case of a president who is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the presidency but cannot, or does not, execute the voluntary declaration contemplated by Section{{nbsp}}3.{{r|feerick_complete|p=117}} It allows the vice president, together with a "majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide",{{NoteTag|No such "other body" has ever been designated,{{r|feerick_complete|p=120}} though there have been proposals.<ref name="auto2"/> Congress's discretion in designating such a body and how it would deliberate is "vast"{{snd}}it could even designate itself{{r|readers|p=16}}{{snd}}but any designating act would be subject to presidential veto (which in turn can be overridden by two-thirds of both the House and Senate) just like any other statute.{{r|readers|p=14}} Should such a body be created, it would become the ''only'' body capable of acting in concert with the vice president under Section{{nbsp}}4; the fifteen cabinet officers would no longer have a role.{{r|readers|p=14-15}} However, the vice president's participation is essential, and vacancy in the vice presidency rules out invocation of Section{{nbsp}}4.{{r|feerick_complete|p=121}} }} to issue a written declaration that the president is unable to discharge his duties. Immediately upon such a declaration being sent to Congress, the vice president becomes acting president{{NoteTag|The transfer of power to the vice president occurs at the moment the declaration is ''sent'' to the Speaker and President ''pro tempore'', not at the moment of receipt,{{r|readers|p=39}}{{r|feerick_complete|p=118}} whether or not Congress is in session at the time of transmittal is immaterial.{{r|feerick_complete|p=118}} }} while (as with Section{{nbsp}}3) the president remains in office, albeit temporarily divested of authority.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/can-the-cabinet-remove-a-president-using-the-25th-amendment|title=Can the Cabinet "remove" a President using the 25th amendment?|last=Bomboy|first=Scott|date=October 12, 2017|website=The Constitution Center|access-date=September 9, 2018|archive-date=January 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108230610/https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/can-the-cabinet-remove-a-president-using-the-25th-amendment|url-status=live}}</ref> [[John Feerick]], the principal drafter of the amendment,{{r|feerick_complete|p=xii,xx}}{{r|readers|p=5}}{{refn|{{cite news|title=John D. Feerick named dean of Fordham Law|first=Wolfgang|last= Saxon|date=December 13, 1981|page=61|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/13/nyregion/john-d-feerick-named-dean-of-fordham-law.html}} }} writes that Congress deliberately left the terms ''unable'' and ''inability'' undefined "since cases of inability could take various forms not neatly fitting into <!--such a--> [a rigid] definition{{nbsp}}... The debates surrounding the Twenty-fifth Amendment indicate that <!--the terms ''unable'' and ''inability''-->[those terms] are intended to cover all cases in which some condition or circumstance prevents the President from discharging his powers and duties{{nbsp}}..."{{hsp}}{{r|feerick_complete|p=112}} A survey of scholarship on the amendment found {{quote|<!--There is -->no specific threshold{{snd}}medical or otherwise{{snd}}for the "inability" contemplated in Section{{nbsp}}4. The framers specifically rejected any definition of the term, prioritizing flexibility. Those implementing Section{{nbsp}}4 should focus on whether{{snd}}in an objective sense taking all of the circumstances into account{{snd}}the President is "unable to discharge the powers and duties" of the office. The amendment does not require that any particular type or amount of evidence be submitted to determine that the President is unable to perform his duties. While the framers did imagine that medical evidence would be helpful to the determination of whether the President is unable, neither medical expertise nor diagnosis is required for a determination of inability{{nbsp}}... To be sure, foremost in [the minds of the framers] was a physical or mental impairment. But the text of Section{{nbsp}}4 sets forth a flexible standard intentionally designed to apply to a wide variety of unforeseen emergencies.{{r|readers|p=7,20}} }} Among potential examples of such unforeseen emergencies, legal scholars have listed kidnapping of the president and "political emergencies" such as [[United States presidential impeachment|impeachment]]. Traits such as unpopularity, incompetence, impeachable conduct, poor judgment, or laziness might not in and of themselves constitute inability, but should such traits "rise to a level where they prevented the President from carrying out his or her constitutional duties, they still might constitute an inability, even in the absence of a formal medical diagnosis." In addition, a president who already manifested disabling traits at the time he or she was elected is not thereby immunized from a declaration of inability.{{r|readers|p=21n63,22n67}} The "principal officers of the executive departments" are the fifteen [[Cabinet of the United States|Cabinet]] members enumerated in the [[United States Code]] at {{usc|5|101}}:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/olc/opinions/1985/06/31/op-olc-v009-p0065_0.pdf|title=Operation of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment Respecting Presidential Succession|publisher=United States Department Of Justice}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The 25th Amendment, explained: how a president can be declared unfit to serve|first=Andrew|last=Prokop|url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/9/14488980/25th-amendment-trump-pence|work=Vox|access-date=August 9, 2018|date=January 2, 2018|archive-date=June 6, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170606030832/https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/9/14488980/25th-amendment-trump-pence|url-status=live}}</ref> {{div col|colwidth=20em}} * [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] * [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Secretary of the Treasury]] * [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] * [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] * [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] * [[United States Secretary of Agriculture|Secretary of Agriculture]] * [[United States Secretary of Commerce|Secretary of Commerce]] * [[United States Secretary of Labor|Secretary of Labor]] * [[United States Secretary of Health and Human Services|Secretary of Health and Human Services]] * [[United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development|Secretary of Housing and Urban Development]] * [[United States Secretary of Transportation|Secretary of Transportation]] * [[United States Secretary of Energy|Secretary of Energy]] * [[United States Secretary of Education|Secretary of Education]] * [[United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs|Secretary of Veterans Affairs]] * [[United States Secretary of Homeland Security|Secretary of Homeland Security]] {{div col end}} Acting secretaries can participate in issuing the declaration.{{r|feerick_complete|p=117-8}}{{r|readers|p=13}} If the president subsequently issues a declaration claiming to be able, then a four-day period begins during which the vice president remains acting president.{{r|feerick_complete|p=118-9}}<ref name=readers>{{cite book |url=https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/clinic/document/mn082208_ls_readerguide_interior_final.pdf|title=The Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution: A Reader's Guide|author=Yale Law School Rule of Law Clinic |year=2018}}</ref>{{rp|38n137}} If by the end of this period the vice president and a majority of the "principal officers" have not issued a second declaration of the president's inability, then the president resumes his powers and duties; but if they do issue a second declaration within the four days, then the vice president remains acting president while Congress considers the matter. Then if within 21 days the Senate and the House determine, each by a two-thirds vote, that the president is unable, then the vice president continues as acting president; otherwise the president resumes his powers and duties.{{NoteTag|If Congress is in session when it receives the second declaration of incapacity, the 21 days begins at that point; otherwise they begin at the end of the 48 hours given for Congress to assemble. The president resumes his powers and duties when either the Senate or the House holds a vote on the question which falls short of the two-thirds requirement, or the 21 days pass without both votes having been taken.{{r|readers|p=52}}<ref>{{Cite book| title=Constitutional cliffhangers: a legal guide for presidents and their enemies| last=Kalt|first=Brian C. |date=2012|publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-12351-7|location=New Haven, CN|oclc=842262440}}</ref>}} Section 4's requirement of a two-thirds vote of the House and a two-thirds vote of the Senate is more strict than the Constitution's requirement for impeachment and removal of the president for "high crimes and misdemeanors"{{snd}}a ''majority'' of the House followed by two-thirds of the Senate.{{r|feerick_complete|p=120n}}{{refn|United States Constitution, Article{{nbsp}}I, Section{{nbsp}}3, Clauses 6 and 7.}}{{refn| {{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/us/politics/trump-25th-amendment-anonymous.html |title=The 25th Amendment: The Difficult Process to Remove a President |work=The New York Times |date=September 6, 2018}} }}<ref>{{cite book |last=Neale|first=Thomas H. |title=Presidential Disability Under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment: Constitutional Provisions and Perspectives for Congress |date=November 5, 2018 |publisher=Congressional Research Service |location=Washington, DC |url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45394.pdf |access-date=November 11, 2018}}</ref> In addition, an impeached president retains his authority unless and until the Senate votes to remove him or her at the end of an impeachment trial; in contrast, should Congress be called upon to decide the question of the president's ability or inability under Section{{nbsp}}4, presidential authority remains in the hands of the vice president (as acting president) unless and until the question is resolved in the president's favor.{{r|feerick_complete|pp=118-20}}Return to Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. |