![]() ![]() Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. 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. 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. Section 4 addresses the aforementioned much more complex scenario: when a president is incapable of declaring his incapacity. Bush formally invoked the amendment twice, in 20, while undergoing routine colonoscopies. ![]() Bush temporarily in charge (though Reagan maintained the drafters of the amendment didn't intend it to be applied in such a circumstance). President Ronald Reagan arguably did so when he underwent cancer surgery in 1985 and put Vice President George H.W.The vice president serves as acting president in the interim.Īccording to Neale of the Congressional Research Service, Section 3 has been invoked three times: The president, in writing, informs the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate of his incapacity and informs them again in writing when ready to resume. Section 3 addresses the simplest scenario: when a president determines he is incapacitated, and later determines he is able to return to the duties of the office. Sections 3 and 4 of the amendment fill that constitutional gap: how to ensure the nation has a chief executive when the president is incapacitated. Hence the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, passed by Congress in 1965 and ratified in 1967 when Nevada became the 38th state to approve it. Had Kennedy remained alive, but incapacitated, there might not have been a way for Vice President Lyndon Johnson to serve as acting president. When the oldest-serving president was succeeded by John Kennedy, the youngest-elected president, concern over the issue "arguably eased," according to Thomas Neale of the Congressional Research Service.Īrticle II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution says the vice president assumes the "powers and duties" of president in the event of the president's "inability," but it doesn't say how to determine the president is unable to serve. It was an ad hoc agreement that left unaddressed a scenario in which the president is incapable of determining his fitness for office. "It's kind of amazing to step back and think about what that would actually be like in practice, that you would have Congress actively, openly, publicly discussing the question of whether or not the president of the United States was mentally fit to return to the presidency." sort of nightmare scenario that scholars describe as contested removal, in which a president would object to the idea that he's been determined to be unwell," writer Evan Osnos said in an interview on NPR's Fresh Air in 2017. And such a move, the report says, could potentially "precipitate a constitutional crisis." If Congress does not have the sufficient majorities in both parties in favor of rescinding the president's power, then he remains in power.Īt the time it was passed, the amendment was not intended to "facilitate the removal of an unpopular or failed President," according to a Congressional Research Service report. For the vice president to assume the power of the presidency, two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and Senate must vote in favor of that outcome. In the case of competing arguments about the president's ability to lead, "Congress shall decide the issue," the amendment says. But the law also gives the sitting president, Trump in this case, the chance to argue that he is fit for office. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |