The Twenty-Fifth Amendment
Ratified in 1967, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment establishes the procedures for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency and for handling the disability or temporary incapacity of the President.
The original Constitution provided that if the President died, resigned, or was removed from office, the Vice President would assume the duties of the office. It did not, however, address several adjacent problems. It did not say what happens if the Vice President dies or resigns. It did not say what should happen if the President becomes temporarily incapacitated but remains alive. It did not say who decides when a President is incapacitated. These gaps had been the source of repeated improvisation. Sixteen times in American history, a Vice President had died, resigned, or succeeded to the presidency, leaving the vice presidency vacant for the remainder of the term.
The assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963 made the gaps urgent. Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, had no Vice President for fourteen months. Two men in the line of succession behind him, the Speaker of the House and the Senate President pro tempore, were 71 and 86 respectively. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment was proposed by Congress in 1965 and ratified in February 1967. Section 1 codifies the existing practice that the Vice President becomes President when the office is vacated. Section 2 provides that when the vice presidency is vacant, the President nominates a successor who takes office upon confirmation by majority vote of both chambers of Congress. Section 3 lets the President voluntarily transfer his powers to the Vice President during a temporary disability. Section 4 sets out the procedure for an involuntary transfer of power if the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet declare the President unable to discharge the duties of office, subject to congressional review if the President contests the finding.
Section 2 has been used twice. President Nixon nominated Gerald Ford after Spiro Agnew's resignation in 1973. Ford in turn nominated Nelson Rockefeller after succeeding to the presidency in 1974. Section 3 has been used briefly by Presidents Reagan, George W. Bush, and Biden during medical procedures requiring anesthesia. Section 4 has never been invoked. The amendment filled the most important remaining gap in the constitutional machinery of presidential succession, which had been built up piece by piece since the original document.