What to Know About the 25th Amendment
What to Know About the 25th Amendment
(Bloomberg) -- The 25th amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides an avenue for a president to be removed from the helm of government -- temporarily or for good, willingly or not -- when necessary under extraordinary circumstances. At times during President Donald Trump’s tumultuous term, his critics have cited the amendment approvingly, even wishfully, while reviewing what they consider his erratic behavior. The siege of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters has again raised the topic, even with Trump in his final weeks as president.
1. What does the 25th amendment say?
It clarifies that the vice president becomes acting president when a president becomes unable to carry out his duties -- when, say, the president undergoes major surgery. It also provides that a president can be removed if the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet determines he or she is “unable to discharge the powers and duties” of the office and transmits a written declaration of that finding to the leaders of the House and Senate. If the president contests the finding, and the vice president and Cabinet persist, the matter becomes an issue for Congress, which needs to muster two-thirds votes in both chambers in order to uphold the president’s removal.
2. Why does this exist?
To address some questions about presidential and vice presidential succession that the Constitution didn’t specifically answer. The amendment was approved by Congress in 1965, and ratified by the requisite three-quarters of U.S. states by 1967, in response to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the immediate confusion following the shooting of Kennedy, there were tense questions about who would run the country should he survive but only in a semiconscious or otherwise grievously wounded condition.
3. Has the amendment been used before?
Never to permanently remove a sitting president. Presidents have voluntarily invoked it to temporarily hand control to their vice presidents. George W. Bush did it twice in order to undergo medical procedures, and Ronald Reagan once, for colon surgery. The amendment also covers instances in which the vice presidency becomes vacant and has been used twice for that purpose. (Before the amendment took effect, the U.S. occasionally went long periods without any vice president.) In 1973, after Spiro Agnew was forced to resign because of tax-evasion charges, President Richard Nixon nominated Representative Gerald Ford to become vice president. He was approved by the House and Senate. After Nixon resigned the following year, Ford became president and nominated Nelson Rockefeller, a former governor of New York, as vice president. He was confirmed by Congress.
4. Why is it coming up now?
Amid the backlash against Trump for inciting protesters over his election defeat, some are advocating his removal before his term ends on Jan. 20. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called on Vice President Mike Pence “to immediately invoke the 25th amendment” because Trump “should not hold office one day longer.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Schumer’s call. Earlier, the president of the National Association of Manufacturers, Jay Timmons, said Pence “should seriously consider working with the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to preserve democracy.” Eighteen Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee, in a letter to Pence reported by the Wall Street Journal, said Trump’s “willingness to incite violence and social unrest to overturn the election results by force” make him unable to carry out his duties. A Republican House member, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, said Trump is “unfit” and “unwell” and needs to be removed “for the sake of our democracy.” A Miami Herald editorial declared Trump “incapacitated,” “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” and “a deranged and dangerous man.”
5. Is there enough time left in Trump’s term to do this?
In theory, yes. A president is considered removed from power from the moment the 25th amendment is invoked by the vice president with sufficient support of the Cabinet. And even if Trump were to immediately contest the finding, as might be expected, Pence could remain in charge until the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. That’s because, assuming Pence and the Cabinet stand behind their declaration that Trump is unable to perform his duties, the 25th amendment gives Congress 21 days to vote on the matter, leaving the vice president in power in the meantime.
6. How did the amendment come up previously under Trump?
The New York Times and ABC News reported in 2018 that the then-deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, had discussed recruiting Cabinet members to invoke the amendment to remove Trump from office. (Rosenstein denied the account and told the Times he saw “no basis” to invoke the amendment.) Weeks earlier, the Times had published an op-ed by a person identified only as “a senior official in the Trump administration” who wrote, “Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the Cabinet of invoking the 25th amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until -- one way or another -- it’s over.”
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