Presidential Assassinations, Resignations, and Disability - the 25th Amendment Revisited

In light of calls for President Joe Biden to step down because of cognition issues and the near assassination of President Donald Trump, its time to revisit the 25th Amendment.

Learn about how the original, unamended Constitution addressed the death, removal, or incapacity of the President or Vice President and its three major defects. The original Constitution left gapping holes about under what circumstances, and in what way, power would flow between the President and Vice President.

For many decades, the shortcomings of the original Article II, Section 1 provisions of the Constitution were laid bare — through deaths, illnesses, and incapacitations of Presidents and Vice Presidents. Explore how the country dealt with those flaws until the adoption of the 25th Amendment in 1967 with the illness, incapacity, disability, and grievous injures of Presidents Woodrow Wilson, James Garfield, Grover Cleveland, and others — which were hidden — and the implications for history. 

Walk through the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) and the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Section 1 of the 25th Amendment makes clear that when a President dies, is removed, or resigns, that the Vice President becomes President.

Section 2 of the 25th Amendment provides a process to replace the Vice President.

Section 3 of the 25th Amendment provides a simple mechanism by which the President can temporarily cede power to the Vice President.

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment provides a process by which a President incapable or unwilling to declare him or herself incapable of performing his or her duties to be replaced by a Vice President as acting President. If there is a dispute, Congress decides with a two-thirds threshold.

Understand how the 25th Amendment was used by President Ronald Reagan and President George W. Bush when undergoing medical procedures. 

Review the calls by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer to replace President Donald Trump through the 25th Amendment. 

Highlights include Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House Nanci Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Vice President Mike Pence, January 6 Capitol Protest a/k/a January 6 Storming of the Capitol, President Donald Trump, President (and Vice President) Joe Biden, President William Henry Harrison death, President John Tyler, President Richard Nixon resignation, President Abraham Lincoln assassination (and assassination plot against Vice President Andrew Johnson, William Seward, and General Ulysses S. Grant), Succession Act of 1792, Vice President Spiro Agnew resignation, President Gerald Ford appointment as Vice President and ascension as President, John Dickinson, Saul K. Padover, James Madison, President James Garfield assassination attempt (and lingering illness and death), Thomas Neal, President Grover Cleveland secret surgeries, President Woodrow Wilson stroke and lingering illness, Secretary of State Robert Lansing convening cabinet meetings during Wilson’s illness, President Dwight Eisenhower heart attack, Vice President temporarily acting as President (Vice President Nixon and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ)), President John F. Kennedy (JFK) assassination, Birch Bay, passage by Congress and ratification of the 25th Amendment, presidential disability (including President George W. Bush (Vice President Dick Cheney) and President Ronald Reagan (Vice President Herbert Walker Bush)), invoking of 25th Amendment following January 6, by the House Judiciary Committee, impeachment, and many others.

To learn more about the Constitution & Patriot Week, visit www.PatriotWeek.org. Our resources include videos, a TV series, blogs, lesson plans, and more.

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