Module 38: The Twenty-Fifth Amendment

The Gap in the Original Text

The Constitution of 1787 had a succession clause, and the clause left three things open. Article II, section 1, clause 6 said that "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." It did not say whether "the Same" meant the office or only its powers. It did not say who decides that a President is unable to serve. And it said nothing about what happens when the Vice President's own seat is empty.¹

The delegates at Philadelphia saw part of the problem. On August 27, 1787, John Dickinson of Delaware pointed at the word "disability" in the draft and asked, "What is the extent of the term 'disability' and who is to be the judge of it?" The CRS account of the debate says none of the delegates offered a recorded response, and the delegates unanimously agreed to postpone the clause.¹ The final text came out of the Brearley Committee and the Committee of Style, and the question Dickinson asked stayed unanswered for 180 years.¹

Tyler and the precedent that held for 126 years

When William Henry Harrison died in 1841, shortly after his inauguration, Vice President John Tyler took the presidential oath and claimed the office itself. Some of his contemporaries thought he should serve only as "Acting President" until a special election. The House and Senate enacted a joint resolution that treated Tyler as President, and that practice was followed by every Vice President after a presidential death for the next century and a quarter.² Seven more Presidents died in office before 1967: Taylor (1850), Lincoln (1865), Garfield (1881), McKinley (1901), Harding (1923), Franklin Roosevelt (1945) and Kennedy (1963).²

Presidents who could not act

Death is a clean event. Illness is not. The CRS history lists James Madison's fever in the summer of 1813, Garfield's 80 days of survival after being shot, Woodrow Wilson's stroke and Dwight Eisenhower's three major illnesses as periods of significant incapacity.² Two cases show the problem plainly. After Garfield was shot in 1881, Vice President Chester Arthur declined to assume the powers, in part because he and a majority of the Cabinet believed doing so would permanently oust Garfield. After Wilson's stroke in 1919, Vice President Thomas Marshall refused to declare Wilson disabled, and important national business went unaddressed. Wilson's wife, physician and private secretary reportedly limited officials' access to him, and when he recovered he dismissed Secretary of State Robert Lansing for encouraging Marshall to serve and for calling Cabinet meetings.²

In 1958 Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon agreed on a procedure under which Eisenhower could transfer his powers voluntarily, or Nixon could act "after such consultation as seem[ed] to him appropriate under the circumstances" if Eisenhower could not communicate. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson later reached similar private agreements with their Vice Presidents.² Such agreements rested on no text, and officials doubted that they would hold up if a President recovered and wanted his office back.

Empty vice presidencies

The second gap was the vice presidency itself. From 1789 to 1967 the office was vacant sixteen times, for more than 37 years in total, because of a Vice President's death, resignation or succession to the presidency.² When Johnson became President in November 1963, the office stayed empty for 14 months. The next two officials in line under the Presidential Succession Act, House Speaker John McCormack and Senate President pro tempore Carl Hayden, were 71 and 86 years old.³ That fact, together with the assassination itself, gave the amendment effort its urgency.

The Text

The amendment has four sections. Sections 1 and 2 deal with vacancies. Sections 3 and 4 deal with inability.

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.

U.S. Const. amend. XXV (ratified February 10, 1967), National Archives transcription

The National Archives transcription carries a small oddity. The first mention of the Cabinet in Section 4 reads "principal officers of the executive departments" and the second reads "principal officers of the executive department," in the singular. Nothing in this lesson turns on it, and readers who compare the two phrases will see it for themselves in the text above.

Three words in these sections do most of the work. "Become" in Section 1 makes the Vice President the President. "Acting" in Sections 3 and 4 makes the Vice President a temporary holder of the powers, with the President still holding the office. And "unable" in Sections 3 and 4 is not defined anywhere in the text.⁵

Section 1: The Vice President Becomes President

Section 1 writes the Tyler precedent into the Constitution. The CRS overview says it was intended "to clarify, consistent with long-established historical practice, that the Vice President immediately succeeds to the presidency" instead of serving as Acting President.⁶ It covers removal (the text names removal from office, which means conviction on impeachment), death and resignation.⁵

It was used in 1974. On August 9 of that year Richard Nixon delivered his written resignation to the Secretary of State, and Gerald Ford became President under Section 1 and was sworn in at the White House.⁷ The House Judiciary Committee had approved three articles of impeachment, and Nixon resigned before the House voted on them.⁸

A 1985 opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel, which advises the executive branch, added a practical point: a Vice President who succeeds to the presidency immediately gives up "all duties and responsibilities as Vice President," and the opinion recommended that the new President take the oath promptly.⁵ The opinion is advice to the executive branch. No court has ruled on it.

Section 2: Filling a Vice Presidential Vacancy

Section 2 replaced a gap with a procedure. When the vice presidency is vacant, the President nominates a successor, and the nominee takes office "upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress." The word "both" matters: the amendment's House manager, Representative Emanuel Celler, said during debate that Section 2 calls for a separate vote in each chamber.⁵ The framers' stated aims, as CRS summarizes the floor debate, were that the nation should "always possess a Vice President" who would be "compatible with the President" and able to serve as President if called upon, and that the requirement of confirmation by each chamber would keep the process accountable to the voters' representatives.⁹

The House Manual records that Congress has performed its Section 2 responsibility twice.⁷

Ford, 1973

Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned on October 10, 1973, during a bribery and corruption investigation.⁸ Three days later, on October 13, the Speaker laid before the House a message from President Nixon nominating Gerald Ford, the House Minority Leader. The nomination went to the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over presidential succession matters under House Rule X. The Senate confirmed Ford on November 27, 1973 and the House on December 6, 1973, and Ford was sworn in that day in the Chamber of the House.⁷ The Senate vote was 92 to 3 and the House vote was 387 to 35.¹⁰¹¹ Chief Justice Warren Burger administered the oath.¹¹

Rockefeller, 1974

After Ford became President on August 9, 1974, the vice presidency was empty again. Ford nominated former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and the nomination reached the House on August 20. The Senate confirmed Rockefeller on December 10, 1974 by a vote of 90 to 7, and the House confirmed him on December 19 by 287 to 128. He was sworn in in the Senate Chamber the same day.⁷¹²¹³ The confirmation process took nearly four months. CRS notes that Ford and Rockefeller, "two men who had not faced the voters in a national election," held the two highest offices in the country as a result.⁸

The two episodes show the strengths and the costs of Section 2. The country had a President and a Vice President within weeks of each vacancy. The process also let one man appoint the next, and the second case ended with a President and Vice President neither of whom had appeared on a national ticket. That is a fair criticism of the design. The framers' stated aim was that the nation should always have a Vice President, and the confirmation vote in each chamber was their check on the President's choice.

Section 3: The President Steps Aside Voluntarily

Section 3 is the part of the amendment that has been used for routine medical care. The President sends a written declaration to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House that he is unable to discharge his powers and duties. The Vice President becomes Acting President, and the President resumes the powers by sending a written declaration to the contrary.⁴ The amendment's House sponsor, Representative Celler, described the purpose in debate: Section 3 "removes the reluctance of both the President and Vice President to move when necessity so dictates. The President is assured of his return to office. The Vice President, as Acting President, will not face the charge that he is usurping the office of President."⁹

The 1985 Office of Legal Counsel opinion advised that the transfer takes effect "immediately" when the President communicates the declaration, and "is not delayed until receipt of the document" by the congressional leaders.⁵

1985: Reagan and Bush

On July 13, 1985, President Reagan underwent surgery for colon cancer. His letter to Senator Strom Thurmond, the President pro tempore, and Speaker Thomas O'Neill said that he was about to be "briefly and temporarily incapable of discharging the Constitutional powers and duties" of the office and that, after consulting White House Counsel and the Attorney General, he was "mindful of the provisions of Section 3 of the 25th Amendment" and "of the uncertainties of its application to such brief and temporary periods of incapacity." He continued: "I do not believe that the drafters of this Amendment intended its application to situations such as the instant one. Nevertheless, consistent with my long-standing arrangement with Vice President George Bush, and not intending to set a precedent binding anyone privileged to hold this Office in the future, I have determined and it is my intention and direction that Vice President George Bush shall discharge those powers and duties in my stead."¹⁴ Later that day he sent a second letter saying he was able to resume the powers and had informed the Vice President.¹⁵

Whether that counts as an invocation of Section 3 is a fair question, and the record supports two readings. Contemporary reporting called the letter "purposely ambiguous" about a formal invocation, and one White House official told the Washington Post that the language followed the procedures of the amendment with a caveat to avoid setting precedents. A 1988 Miller Center commission that included Senator Birch Bayh and former Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote that Reagan followed the pattern of Section 3 "despite the disclaimer in his letter" and that his counsel, Fred Fielding, testified that Reagan and his associates "clearly intended to invoke Section 3." The same report also said that Reagan chose not to invoke Section 3 officially and followed its form anyway.¹⁶ The House Manual lists the July 1985 communications among the Section 3 communications laid before the House, and CRS says each of the amendment's first three sections has been invoked "at least once" since ratification.⁷⁸ This lesson counts 1985 as a use of the Section 3 mechanism and records that the President disclaimed any precedent.

2002 and 2007: Bush and Cheney

President George W. Bush removed the ambiguity. His letter of June 29, 2002 to the President pro tempore said it "shall constitute my written declaration that I am unable to discharge the Constitutional powers and duties of the office of President of the United States" and that "the Vice President shall discharge those powers and duties as Acting President until I transmit to you a written declaration that I am able to resume the discharge of those powers and duties."¹⁷ The White House physician's briefing gave the times. The anesthetic began at 7:09 a.m., the procedure ended at 7:29, the President awoke at 7:31, and the powers returned to him at 9:24 a.m.¹⁸ The physician said that the delay between waking and resuming the powers was a precaution based on consultation with medical experts about how long to wait after the sedative.¹⁸

Bush used the same language on July 21, 2007 before another colonoscopy, and the letters were printed in the Congressional Record on July 23.¹⁹

2021: Biden and Harris

On November 19, 2021, President Joseph Biden sent letters to the Senate's President pro tempore, Patrick Leahy, and to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They said that he would undergo "a routine medical procedure requiring sedation," that he had "determined to transfer temporarily the powers and duties" of the office to the Vice President, and that the letter was his written declaration under Section 3 that he was "presently unable to discharge" them. A second letter the same day declared that he was able to resume them.²⁰ Under the first letter, Vice President Kamala Harris would discharge the powers as Acting President until the President sent the second. The House Manual edition used in this lesson predates that episode and does not list it, which is why the primary letters are cited here.⁷

Taken together, the uses this lesson found show what Section 3 has been for in practice: sedation during planned medical procedures, with the powers returning the same day.

Section 4: When the President Cannot or Will Not Say So

Section 4 is the part of the amendment that people argue about, and it has never been invoked.⁶⁸ The CRS overview calls it "perhaps the most controversial" provision and says it "might be invoked when the President is unable or unwilling to declare that he is incapacitated."⁶

The steps

1. The declaration. The Vice President and a majority of the "principal officers of the executive departments" (or of another body Congress creates by law) send a written declaration to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker that the President is unable to discharge his powers and duties. The Vice President "shall immediately assume" them as Acting President.⁴ The 1985 Office of Legal Counsel opinion advised that the declaration may be made in several separate documents and does not need every signature on one page if the assent of the Vice President and the majority is established "in a reliable fashion."⁵
2. The President's answer. When the President sends a written declaration that no inability exists, he resumes his powers and duties.⁴
3. The challenge. The President resumes unless, within four days, the Vice President and the majority send a contrary declaration.⁴
4. Congress decides. Congress must assemble within 48 hours if not in session. If, within 21 days, two-thirds of both Houses determine that the President is unable, the Vice President continues as Acting President. Otherwise the President resumes his powers.⁴

The framers appear to have understood that the Vice President continues as Acting President while Congress decides, and that the President could submit further declarations of recovery afterwards, which could start the process again.⁵

Why the bar is high

The debates in Congress centered on Section 4, and the framers answered the worry that the Vice President, the Cabinet or Congress might use it for political ends.⁹ CRS lists four safeguards. First, the people who start the process are the Vice President and executive officers close to the President, who can watch his condition and would presumably be loyal to him. Second, Congress must act within a short period if the President disputes the declaration. Third, a two-thirds vote of both Houses, "higher than the threshold to impeach and remove a President from office," is needed to keep the Vice President in charge over the President's objection. Fourth, the Vice President acts as President only until the President declares that he has recovered.⁹ The framers also said that the system's success would depend on the good faith of the officials charged with using it.⁹

A reader who wants the simplest summary can use this: the Vice President and the Cabinet can start a transfer, and a two-thirds vote in each House is needed to make it last against a President who says he is fit.

Who counts as "principal officers"

The text says "principal officers of the executive departments." The House Judiciary Committee report in 1965 read the phrase as "Presidential appointees who direct the 10 executive departments named in 5 U.S.C. § 1 [now codified as § 101], or any executive department established in the future, generally considered to comprise the President's Cabinet." The Supreme Court, in Freytag v. Commissioner (1991), said in a passing remark that the phrase refers to the Cabinet departments' heads.⁵ The same source notes that scholars and members of Congress took different views on whether an acting Cabinet secretary, who is not a Senate-confirmed head of the department, may take part.⁵ Nothing in the text answers that question.

The near misses

On March 30, 1981, President Reagan was shot and rushed to surgery with no chance to sign a Section 3 letter. According to the Reagan Library, administration officials prepared the letters that would have invoked Section 4 but never signed them, and Reagan recovered.²¹ Whether Section 4 should have been used is debated. Birch Bayh, the Senate sponsor of the amendment, wrote in 1995 that it should have been, according to the Wikipedia summary, which this lesson did not check against the original.²²

In January 2021, after the attack on the Capitol on January 6, the House asked the Vice President to act. House Resolution 21, "Calling on Vice President Michael R. Pence to convene and mobilize the principal officers of the executive departments of the Cabinet to activate section 4 of the 25th Amendment," passed on January 12 by 223 to 205, with all 222 Democrats and one Republican in favor and five members not voting.²³ A resolution of this kind has no binding effect, because Section 4 gives the power to the Vice President and the Cabinet, not to Congress. Earlier that evening, Pence had written to Speaker Pelosi that he would not invoke the amendment, and said it should not be used "as a means of punishment or usurpation" and should be reserved for medical or mental incapacity.²⁴

Two readings of that exchange are common. One holds that Section 4 is about inability in the medical or functional sense only, so that a President's conduct, however serious, is a matter for impeachment. The other holds that "unable to discharge the powers and duties" can cover a President who is physically or mentally unfit to function in a crisis, and that the Vice President and Cabinet are the officers the Constitution trusts to say so. CRS reports that the framers left "inability" undefined on purpose, that the legislative history suggests physical or mental inability, temporary or permanent, can qualify, and that the framers did not intend it to cover "unpopularity, incompetence, impeachable conduct, poor judgment, [or] laziness."²⁵ Both readings can claim support from that record.

Reference works report that the amendment was discussed again in April 2026, and that it was not invoked.²² This lesson did not confirm those reports against primary sources, and it found no declaration under Section 4.

How Congress Wrote It, 1963 to 1965

Hearings began after Eisenhower's heart attack in 1955. Representative Emanuel Celler of New York chaired the House Judiciary Committee and Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee chaired the Senate subcommittee on constitutional amendments. By early 1958, after Eisenhower's third illness in office, many senators had concluded that an amendment was necessary, but no proposal reached either floor.³

Kennedy's assassination in November 1963 changed that. Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana, who had become chair of the Senate subcommittee after Kefauver's death, introduced S.J. Res. 139 on December 12, 1963. On the Senate floor he stressed the importance of a President "capable of making rational decisions and rational determinations" in an age of nuclear weapons. The Senate Judiciary Committee reported a revised text in August 1964, and the Senate approved it unanimously on September 29, 1964. The 88th Congress adjourned without the House acting.³

In the next Congress, President Johnson told Congress on January 4, 1965 that he would "propose laws to insure the necessary continuity of leadership should the President become disabled or die." Bayh reintroduced his text as S.J. Res. 1, and Celler introduced H.J. Res. 1. The Senate approved S.J. Res. 1 unanimously on February 19, 1965, and the House passed its version on April 13, 1965 by 368 to 29.³

The two chambers' texts differed. The Senate version gave the Vice President and the Cabinet seven days to challenge a President's declaration of recovery and had no deadlines for Congress. The House version had specific deadlines, including a ten-day period for Congress. A conference committee settled on four days, 48 hours and 21 days, and adopted the House language that lets a President resume his powers at any time after a Section 3 declaration. The House agreed to the conference report by voice vote on June 30, 1965, and the Senate agreed on July 6, 1965 by 68 to 5.³⁸

Two dates for the proposal appear in official sources. The National Archives and the Constitution Annotated give July 6, 1965, the day the Senate acted. The House Manual says the amendment was proposed on July 7, 1965.⁴⁵⁷ The difference is a day, and this lesson uses July 6 because two of the three sources agree on it.

The joint resolution carried a clause requiring ratification by three-fourths of the States within seven years. The amendment was ratified in about a year and a half.⁵

Ratification, 1965 to 1967

Nebraska ratified first, on July 12, 1965. Wisconsin followed on July 13 and Oklahoma on July 16. The House Manual lists thirty-eight State legislatures that ratified by February 10, 1967, when Minnesota and Nevada both ratified. Nevada, last on the list, completed ratification as the thirty-eighth State, which is three-fourths of fifty rounded up. The Manual's own note says the amendment was ratified by the legislatures of "39 of the 50 States," but the list that follows it gives 38 dates, and this lesson counts the 38 dates.⁷ Nine more States ratified afterwards, from Connecticut on February 14, 1967 to Florida on May 25, 1967.⁷ The Administrator of General Services certified the amendment on February 23, 1967.⁸ At a White House ceremony President Johnson said that "in this crisis-ridden era there is no margin for delay, no possible justification for ever permitting a vacuum in our national leadership."⁸

The chart in the Numbers section shows the pace by month. Ratifications came in bursts when legislatures met: the fall of 1965, the winter of 1966, and again in January and February 1967.

The States that ratified before the completion date came from every region. They included Massachusetts and California in 1965, then Virginia and Mississippi (March 1966), New York and Idaho (March 1966), and Tennessee and Wyoming (January 1967).⁷ That describes where the votes came from and says nothing about the motives of any legislature.

What the Amendment Leaves Open

The amendment's own framers knew it was imperfect. Celler told the House that "No bill can be perfect," and called the amendment a "well-rounded, sensible, and efficient approach toward a solution of a perplexing problem."²⁵ CRS lists the gaps that commentators have since pointed out.²⁵

• No Vice President. Sections 3 and 4 assume a Vice President in office. A President who anticipates a short incapacity may hold off on Section 3 during a vacancy, and officials cannot invoke Section 4 without a Vice President, because every Section 4 declaration needs the Vice President's participation.²⁵
• A Vice President who is unable. If the Vice President cannot serve, a President might not want to transfer even brief powers to him, and under Section 1 an incapacitated Vice President would become President automatically on a vacancy.²⁵
• An Acting President who becomes unable. Federal law does not name an official to serve as Acting President for the length of a new President's inability. Some scholars read Article II's Succession Clause and the Presidential Succession Act as letting Congress fill these gaps by ordinary legislation. Others read the Act as implicitly permitting the next official in line to decide inability when there is no healthy Vice President.²⁵
• The meaning of "unable." The definition is open, and the text was kept flexible on purpose, as described above.²⁵
• The "other body." Congress may by law replace the Cabinet in Section 4 with another body. It has never done so, and it has never defined inability.⁹ Some commentators suggest a congressionally created "disability review body," which could be useful if a President fired Cabinet members who voted to transfer his powers. Others worry that officials outside the executive branch taking part could raise separation-of-powers problems, and the President could veto a bill that creates such a body, subject to override.²⁵
• The Vice President's other duties. It is unclear whether a Vice President serving as Acting President keeps the duties of the vice presidency. The Constitution says the Senate chooses a President pro tempore "when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States," so the pro tempore would presumably preside over the Senate in the meantime.⁵

The Supreme Court has not definitively interpreted the amendment. It has described its purpose in passing: in Clinton v. Jones (1997) the Court said in dicta that its drafters wanted to "ensure continuity in the performance of the powers and duties of the [presidency]."⁵ Because the Court has often declined to decide questions committed to other branches, CRS suggests that the final word on defining inability may rest with the President under Section 3 and with the Vice President, Cabinet and Congress under Section 4.²⁵

Myths and Misreadings

• "Section 4 has been used." It has not. CRS and the Constitution Annotated both state that Section 4 has never been invoked.⁸⁵ The years usually cited as uses of the amendment are 1973, 1974, 1985, 2002 and 2007. The first two are Section 2 vice presidential confirmations (Ford and Rockefeller), with a Section 1 succession in 1974. The last three are Section 3 voluntary transfers around medical procedures, joined by one more in 2021.⁷¹⁷²⁰
• "The Cabinet can remove a President by signing a letter." A Section 4 declaration moves the powers to the Vice President only until the President answers, and a two-thirds vote of both Houses is needed to keep them there against a President who says he is able.⁴
• "The amendment lets Congress remove a President." Removal is impeachment under Article I, and Section 1 of this amendment deals with a removal already made. Section 4 shifts powers temporarily and does not remove anyone from office.⁵
• "The Vice President is an Acting President when a President dies." Section 1 makes the Vice President President. "Acting President" belongs to Sections 3 and 4.⁶
• "Ford and Rockefeller were elected." They were confirmed by Congress. CRS notes that neither had faced the voters in a national election.⁸
• "A resolution of Congress can trigger Section 4." The House's 2021 resolution called on the Vice President to act. It could not do the Cabinet's or the Vice President's part, and the Vice President declined.²³²⁴

Questions People Ask

Who becomes President if both the President and Vice President cannot serve? The amendment does not say. Article II lets Congress name by law the officer who acts, and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 sets the line: the Speaker of the House, the President pro tempore of the Senate, and then Cabinet secretaries in the order their departments were created.¹

Can a President take back his powers right after a Section 3 transfer? Yes. The conference committee adopted language confirming that a President may resume his powers and duties at any time after a self-declared inability by sending the proper notice.⁸

How long can an Acting President serve under Section 3? As long as the President leaves the declaration in place. Section 3 sets no limit.⁴

Does the Vice President vote in the Senate while acting as President? The question is unsettled. The Constitution Annotated says the pro tempore would presumably preside.⁵

What would the Cabinet need to do under Section 4? A majority of the principal officers of the executive departments would sign, with the Vice President, a written declaration sent to the Senate's President pro tempore and the Speaker.⁴

Is there a time limit on the amendment's ratification? The joint resolution said three-fourths of the States must ratify within seven years, and the amendment met that in about a year and a half.⁵ Module 40 covers an amendment proposed with no such limit.

Landmark Cases

The Supreme Court has not definitively interpreted the Twenty-fifth Amendment, so the table lists what courts and the Department of Justice have said in passing. The Office of Legal Counsel entries are executive branch opinions and are not court decisions.

The Idaho Connection

Ratification. Idaho ratified the Twenty-fifth Amendment on March 2, 1966, according to the House Manual. Counting down the Manual's list of the thirty-eight legislatures whose ratifications completed the amendment, Idaho is twenty-third. It followed Alaska (February 18, 1966) and preceded Hawaii (March 3, 1966).⁷

The Idaho Constitution has its own succession rules. Article IV, section 12 says that "In case of the failure to qualify, the impeachment, or conviction of treason, felony, or other infamous crime of the governor, or his death, removal from office, resignation, absence from the state, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the powers, duties and emoluments of the office for the residue of the term, or until the disability shall cease, shall devolve upon the lieutenant governor."²⁶ Section 13 makes the lieutenant governor president of the Senate, with a President pro tempore performing his duties "when he shall hold the office of governor." Section 14 sends the duties to the President pro tempore, and then the Speaker of the House, if both the governor and lieutenant governor are disqualified.²⁶

Three differences from the federal text are worth seeing. First, Idaho's list of triggers includes "absence from the state," which the federal amendment does not. Second, Idaho's text says the powers pass for "the residue of the term, or until the disability shall cease," so the Idaho text contemplates an inability that ends. Third, and most important for a student of the federal amendment, Idaho's text names "inability to discharge the powers and duties" as a trigger without saying who decides, which is the question Dickinson asked in 1787 about the federal clause.¹²⁶ This lesson did not find an Idaho statute or decision that fills that gap.²⁷ A reader who needs to know how Idaho would handle a disputed gubernatorial inability should treat that as an open question.

No federal-style process for the vice presidency. The Idaho provisions above speak to the governor's office. This lesson did not find in Idaho's Constitution a counterpart to Section 2's confirmation procedure for a vacant lieutenant governorship and did not confirm how Idaho fills that vacancy.²⁷

Where This Shows Up for Officials, Reporters and Citizens

The staff attorney writing a continuity memo

Ruth Delacroix is counsel to an invented governor in a western state whose constitution looks a good deal like Idaho's. The governor will have surgery in the spring and wants a one-page plan. Delacroix reads her constitution's inability clause beside the Twenty-fifth Amendment and sees what the federal text provides that hers does not: a written declaration, a named recipient and a clear way to resume. She advises the governor to write a letter in the form of Section 3 to the officers who would need to rely on it, saying when the powers pass and when they return, and she records the times, as the White House did in 2002.¹⁸ Her memo also states what the state constitution leaves open: who would decide if the governor could not sign.²⁶

The reporter checking a viral claim

A reader sends reporter Marcus Whitfield a post that says the Cabinet can remove the President "with one signed letter." Whitfield's check is short. The Vice President must join the Cabinet majority. The declaration moves powers, not the office. The President can answer in writing and resume his powers, unless the Vice President and the majority challenge within four days. Then Congress has 21 days and needs two-thirds of both Houses.⁴ He also checks the post's other claims against the record: Section 4 has never been invoked, and a House resolution in 2021 asked the Vice President to act and he declined.²³²⁴ He rates the post's claim of "one signed letter" as misleading.

The citizen at the town meeting

At a town meeting in an invented Idaho county, a resident asks who becomes President if the Vice President is also hurt. The moderator, county clerk Walt Brennan, answers from what the record says. The amendment does not cover that case. The Presidential Succession Act puts the Speaker first and the Senate's President pro tempore second, and Congress has the power to change that line by law.¹²⁵ Brennan adds that the amendment has gaps its framers recognized.

Related Modules

• Module 3, Article II: The President: the original Succession Clause and the Vice President.
• Module 26, The Twelfth Amendment: separate electoral ballots for President and Vice President.
• Module 33, The Twentieth Amendment: succession when no President-elect qualifies.
• Module 35, The Twenty-Second Amendment: the term limit and the vice presidency.
• Module 2, Article I: Congress: impeachment, the Senate's President pro tempore and the Speaker.
• Module 6, Amending the Constitution: Article V and the proposal of amendments.
• Module 5, Federalism and the States: State succession rules beside the federal ones.
• Module 37, The Twenty-Fourth Amendment: the amendment ratified three years before this one.
• Module 40, The Twenty-Seventh Amendment: an amendment proposed without a ratification deadline.

Sources & Further Reading

Primary Sources

• National Archives, The Constitution: Amendments 11-27
• House Manual (116th Congress), Amendment XXV and ratification notes
• Reagan letter of July 13, 1985 (transfer)
• Reagan letter of July 13, 1985 (resumption)
• Bush letter of June 29, 2002 (transfer)
• Press Briefing by Dr. Richard Tubb, June 29, 2002
• Bush letter of July 21, 2007 (transfer)
• Biden letter of November 19, 2021 (transfer)
• House Roll Call 14, H. Res. 21 (January 12, 2021)
• Voteview, Senate Vote 499 (Ford, November 27, 1973)
• Voteview, Senate Vote 1092 (Rockefeller, December 10, 1974)
• Voteview, House Vote 1070 (Rockefeller, December 19, 1974)

Idaho Law and Records

• Idaho Const. art. IV, sec. 12
• Idaho Const. art. IV, sec. 13
• Idaho Const. art. IV, sec. 14

Secondary Sources and Further Reading

• Constitution Annotated, Amendment XXV: Overview
• CRS Legal Sidebar LSB11131, Part 1: Introduction
• CRS Legal Sidebar LSB11132, Part 2: Federal Convention Debates
• CRS Legal Sidebar LSB11133, Part 3: History of Presidential Succession
• CRS Legal Sidebar LSB11134, Part 4: Drafting in Congress
• CRS Legal Sidebar LSB11135, Part 5: Major Congressional Debates
• CRS Legal Sidebar LSB11136, Part 6: Final Approval and Implementation
• CRS Legal Sidebar LSB11137, Part 7: Issues for Congress
• Reagan Library Education Blog: Section 3 and July 13, 1985
• Reagan Library Education Blog: Section 4 and March 30, 1981
• Ford Presidential Library, "Veep!"
• PBS NewsHour (AP), Pence tells Pelosi he won't invoke the 25th Amendment
• Wikipedia, Twenty-fifth Amendment (general reference, see footnote)

Footnotes

1. Murrill, CRS, The Twenty-Fifth Amendment and Presidential Inability, Part 2: Federal Convention Debates, LSB11132 (Mar. 28, 2024), https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/LSB11132.html. Source for the Committee of Detail draft of August 6, 1787, the August 27 debate, Dickinson's question, and the Presidential Succession Acts of 1792, 1886 and 1947.
2. Murrill, CRS, The Twenty-Fifth Amendment and Presidential Inability, Part 3: History of Presidential Succession, LSB11133 (Mar. 28, 2024), https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/LSB11133.html. Source for the eight deaths in office, the sixteen vice presidential vacancies, the Tyler precedent, the Garfield and Wilson episodes and the Eisenhower agreement of 1958.
3. Murrill, CRS, The Twenty-Fifth Amendment and Presidential Inability, Part 4: Drafting in Congress, LSB11134 (Mar. 28, 2024), https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/LSB11134.html. Source for the Celler and Kefauver hearings, S.J. Res. 139, S.J. Res. 1, and the votes of September 29, 1964, February 19, 1965 and April 13, 1965.
4. National Archives, The Constitution: Amendments 11-27, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27. Full text of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, with "Passed by Congress July 6, 1965. Ratified February 10, 1967." and the note that "Article II, section 1, of the Constitution was affected by the 25th amendment."
5. Constitution Annotated, Amendment XXV, Overview of Twenty-Fifth Amendment, Presidential Vacancy and Disability, https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-25/overview-of-twenty-fifth-amendment-presidential-vacancy-and-disability. Source for the summary of each section, the seven-year ratification clause in S.J. Res. 1, the footnote on the Cabinet in Section 4 (including Freytag v. Commissioner and Clinton v. Jones), and the 1985 and 1981 Office of Legal Counsel opinions.
6. Brandon J. Murrill, Congressional Research Service, The Twenty-Fifth Amendment and Presidential Inability, Part 1: Introduction, LSB11131 (Mar. 28, 2024), https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/LSB11131.html.
7. Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 116th Congress, Amendment XXV, notes 16 and following, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/HMAN-116/html/HMAN-116-pg119.htm and the continuation at pages 120 to 122. Source for the proposal date (July 7, 1965 in the Manual), the proclamation of February 23, 1967, every State ratification date, the House messages and confirmation dates for Ford and Rockefeller, and the three Section 3 communications laid before the House (July 15, 1985; July 8, 2002; July 23, 2007).
8. Murrill, CRS, The Twenty-Fifth Amendment and Presidential Inability, Part 6: Final Approval and Implementation, LSB11136 (Mar. 28, 2024), https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/LSB11136.html. Source for the conference compromise, the votes of June 30 and July 6, 1965, the proclamation of February 23, 1967, President Johnson's remarks and the account of each use of Sections 1 and 2. Its final paragraph on Section 3 is garbled in the published text, so this lesson relies on the primary documents for those uses.
9. Murrill, CRS, The Twenty-Fifth Amendment and Presidential Inability, Part 5: Major Congressional Debates, LSB11135 (Mar. 28, 2024), https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/LSB11135.html. Source for the floor debate on Section 4, the safeguards the framers described, and the statement that Congress has never created a disability review body or defined inability.
10. Voteview (UCLA), 93rd Congress, Senate, Vote 499, November 27, 1973, https://voteview.com/rollcall/RS0930499. Result 92 to 3, "to advise and consent to the nomination of Gerald R. Ford to be Vice-President."
11. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, "Veep!" (Dec. 6, 2023), https://ford.blogs.archives.gov/2023/12/06/veep. States that the Senate confirmed Ford 92 to 3 on November 27, 1973 and the House 387 to 35 nine days later, and that Chief Justice Burger administered the oath.
12. Voteview, 93rd Congress, Senate, Vote 1092, December 10, 1974, https://voteview.com/rollcall/RS0931092. Result 90 to 7 on confirming Nelson A. Rockefeller.
13. Voteview, 93rd Congress, House, Vote 1070, December 19, 1974, https://voteview.com/rollcall/RH0931070. Result 287 to 128 on H. Res. 1511, confirming Nelson A. Rockefeller.
14. Ronald Reagan, Letter to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House on the Discharge of the President's Powers and Duties During His Surgery, July 13, 1985, Reagan Presidential Library, https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/research/speeches/71385b.
15. Reagan, Letter on the President's Resumption of His Powers and Duties Following Surgery, July 13, 1985, Reagan Presidential Library, https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/research/speeches/71385c.
16. Brett Robert, "The 25th Amendment: Section 3 and July 13, 1985," Reagan Library Education Blog, July 24, 2017, https://reagan.blogs.archives.gov/2017/07/24/the-25th-amendment-section-3-and-july-13-1985/. Quotes the New York Times and Washington Post accounts of July 14, 1985 and the 1988 Miller Center commission report.
17. George W. Bush, Presidential Letter on Transfer of Constitutional Powers, June 29, 2002, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020629-4.html, and Presidential Letter Resuming Constitutional Powers, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020629-2.html.
18. Press Briefing by Dr. Richard Tubb, June 29, 2002, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020629-7.html. Gives the times: anesthetic begun at 7:09 a.m., procedure concluded 7:29, President awake 7:31, powers returned at 9:24 a.m.
19. Bush, Text of a Letter to the Speaker and the President Pro Tempore, July 21, 2007 (transfer), https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070721-5.html, and (resumption) https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070721-8.html. The same letters appear in the Congressional Record, July 23, 2007, p. H8190, https://www.congress.gov/110/crec/2007/07/23/modified/CREC-2007-07-23-pt1-PgH8190-6.htm.
20. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Letter to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate on the Temporary Transfer of the Powers and Duties of President, November 19, 2021, American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/353425; Letter to the Speaker, https://presidency.ucsb.edu/node/353426; and Letter on Resuming the Powers and Duties, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/353428.
21. Robert, "The 25th Amendment: Section 4 and March 30, 1981," Reagan Library Education Blog, https://reagan.blogs.archives.gov/2017/07/26/the-25th-amendment-section-4-and-march-30-1981. Reports that the administration prepared but did not sign the letters that would have invoked the Amendment.
22. "Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution," Wikipedia, section on considered invocations, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution, page opened October 18, 2026. A general reference work, cited only for the report that the Amendment was discussed in April 2026; this lesson did not open the underlying news reports.
23. Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Final Vote Results for Roll Call 14, H. Res. 21, 117th Cong., January 12, 2021, https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2021/roll014. Result 223 yeas (222 Democrats, 1 Republican), 205 nays, 5 not voting.
24. Associated Press, "Pence tells Pelosi he won't invoke the 25th Amendment," PBS NewsHour, January 12, 2021, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/pence-tells-pelosi-he-wont-invoke-the-25th-amendment. Quotes Pence's letter: the mechanism should not be used "as a means of punishment or usurpation."
25. Murrill, CRS, The Twenty-Fifth Amendment and Presidential Inability, Part 7: Issues for Congress, LSB11137 (Mar. 28, 2024), https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/LSB11137.html. Source for the 2012 Fordham clinic list of gaps, the debate over the meaning of inability and the disability review body proposals.
26. Idaho Constitution, art. IV, sec. 12 (lieutenant governor to act as governor), https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idconst/ArtIV/Sect12/; sec. 13 (lieutenant governor is president of senate), https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idconst/ArtIV/Sect13/; sec. 14 (president pro tempore to act as governor), https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idconst/ArtIV/Sect14/.
27. This lesson searched for an Idaho statute or appellate decision that says who decides whether a governor is unable to discharge the office, and for any Idaho decision applying the Twenty-fifth Amendment, and found none. That is a statement about this lesson's search, not a finding that none exists.