The 25th Amendment

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Tyler Precedent

Read the U.S. Constitution Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 below.

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected..

After Harrison died, Congress went to this clause in the Constitution to determine what the framers wanted to happen.

• When you read it, does a plan of action seem clear to you?

• What does same mean in this context? The duties of the president or of the office itself?

The original interpretation at the time was that Vice President John Tyler should act as President with the Cabinet advisors' help until another election in four years.

However, Tyler convinced Congress to let him take the Oath of Office and become the next full-fledged President of the United States, arguing he could lead much more effectively that way.

From this point onward, it seemed that the ambiguity in this clause of the Constitution had been solved.

Health Problems

• Everything was solved, right?

After John Tyler, other vice presidents followed his lead, and this easy system kept order whenever a president died.

• But what if the president didn't die but could no longer serve effectively?

In 1919, Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke that made him completely unfit for office.

• So what did the country do?

Watch a portion of the video below to find out.

Wilson and his wife kept it entirely secret!

Over his remaining 17 months in office, the Cabinet rarely saw him, and he only slightly recovered.

The Vice President and the Cabinet were powerless without any procedure. They could only request to see the President and recommend that he step down.

This situation never happened again after Wilson; however, the concern remained that the U.S. government was powerless to remove a sitting president over incapacity concerns.

Line of Succession

A line of succession means the order in which a position is filled.

In the United States, the line of succession to the presidency is based on seniority. First, it is the vice president, followed by the speaker of the House, and then the president Ppro tempore of the Senate.

In 1963, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Congress saw a major flaw in the current system and decided it had to be fixed.

Watch this short clip to see if you can spot the concern.

When a vice president ascended to the presidency, there was no procedure to add a new vice president.

This meant that, if anything happened to the new president, the office could be led by the speaker of the House for years until the next scheduled election.

Many members of Congress knew Lyndon Johnson had chronic health problems. They also knew the current House speaker and Senate president were over 70 years old.

This prompted Congress to try to fix all the issues inherent in this vague clause from the Constitution.

Solution

The 25th Amendment was passed and ratified, all during Lyndon Johnson's second term. It was passed in 1965 and ratified by the states in 1967.

Most of the amendments to the Constitution only contain one critical section. However, all four sections of the 25th Amendment are significant.

1. If the president dies, is removed, or resigns from office, the vice president becomes president.

2. Vice presidents who ascend to the presidency will nominate a new vice president whose confirmation will require a majority vote from the House and the Senate.

3. The president can make the vice president acting president by sending a letter to Congress saying he will not be able to serve and can regain power by sending another letter stating he can serve.

4. If the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet believe the president is unfit to serve, the president is removed from office, and the vice president becomes President of the United States.

Compare this to the original clause in the Constitution.

• Doesn't it seem much more detailed?

The 25th Amendment covers every possible instance in which the president would no longer be able to govern effectively.

Continue to the Got It? section to connect these clauses with the historical events discussed so far in this lesson.