Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

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: Presidential succession

Further information: United States presidential line of succession

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

Further information: Vice President of the United States § Vacancies

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 addresses the Constitution's omission of a mechanism for filling a vacancy in the office of vice president during the term in which the vacancy occurred. Before the Twenty-fifth Amendment a vice presidential vacancy continued until a new vice president took office at the start of the next 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. 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 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

>>12500180

Section 4: Declaration by vice president and cabinet members of president's inability

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.

>>12500191

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[note 2] 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.[7]

Section 4 addresses the case of an president who 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 the powers and duties" of their office. Immediately upon such a declaration being sent, the vice president becomes acting president[note 4] while (as with Section 3) the president remains in office, albeit temporarily divested of authority.[8]

John Feerick, the principal drafter of the amendment,[3]:xii,xx[4]:5[9] writes that Congress determined that "a rigid constitutional definition [of the terms unable and inability] was undesirable, since cases of inability could take various forms not neatly fitting into such a definition … The debates surrounding the Twenty-fifth Amendment indicate that the terms unable and inability 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

>>12500231

no specific threshold – medical or otherwise – for the "inability" contemplated in Section 4. The framers specifically rejected any definition of the term, prioritizing flexibility. Those implementing Section 4 should focus on whether – in an objective sense taking all of the circumstances into account – 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 … To be sure, foremost in [the minds of the framers] was a physical or mental impairment. But the text of Section 4 sets forth a flexible standard intentionally designed to apply to a wide variety of unforeseen emergencies.[4]:7,20

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 (with officeholders as of January 11, 2021):[10][11]

Secretary of State (Mike Pompeo)

Secretary of the Treasury (Steve Mnuchin)

Secretary of Defense (vacant; Christopher C. Miller acting)

Attorney General (vacant; Jeff Rosen acting)

Secretary of the Interior (David Bernhardt)

Secretary of Agriculture (Sonny Perdue)

Secretary of Commerce (Wilbur Ross)

Secretary of Labor (Eugene Scalia)

Secretary of Health and Human Services (Alex Azar)

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Ben Carson)

Secretary of Transportation (vacant; Steven Bradbury acting)[12]

Secretary of Energy (Dan Brouillette)

Secretary of Education (vacant; Mick Zais acting)

Secretary of Veterans Affairs (Robert Wilkie)

Secretary of Homeland Security (vacant; Pete Gaynor acting)

Acting secretaries can participate in issuing the declaration.[3]:117-8[4]:13

If a 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

>>12500110

>(those indictments are for somebody… maybe us?)

I never understand this part. We haven't done shit. Why do ya'll say it?

Q Drop #3371

>>12500605

>Is this your first day on our planet?

Be sweet, anon. This was funny though.

>>12500691

Fits a lot today, don't it?