The 25th Amendment allows the vice president and a majority of the president’s cabinet to declare the president unfit for duty thereby giving the vice president the authority to become the new president and fully assume the office.
President Biden performed poorly at the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign, raising concerns about his age and mental acuity. There are calls for him to drop out of the race but Biden has rejected these calls and has continued campaigning, denying speculation about his mental fitness and refusing to take a cognitive test.
What is the 25th Amendment?
The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution was introduced by Senator Birch Bayh in 1965 and ratified on February 10, 1967. It outlines the order of presidential succession and plans for filling any executive vacancies. According to Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, the vice president assumes the powers and duties of the president if the president is removed from office. The amendment reaffirmed previous precedents set by presidents and vice presidents when dealing with succession crises.
How does it work?
The 25th Amendment is divided into four sections.
Section 1
Gives the vice president the authority to become the new president and fully assume the office, rather than simply taking on their duties as an acting president in the event of the president’s removal from office, resignation, or death.
Section 2
Mandates that the president nominates a replacement for the vice president when needed. However, this nomination has to be confirmed by both houses of Congress.
Section 3
Allows a president to announce an inability to govern by formally informing congressional leaders. It also allows the president to temporarily delegate the powers of their office to the vice president. Following this, the president can request the restoration of their powers after the specified period. This addresses the situation where a president is incapable of fulfilling their duties but is unwilling to step down.
Section 4
Addresses who else besides the president may declare the president unable to perform official duties. This section grants the vice president and a majority of the president’s cabinet or Congress the authority to determine the president’s ability to carry out their responsibilities. If the group reaches a majority consensus of “yes”, the president’s powers are automatically transferred to the vice president.
The president can contest this decision by declaring their ability to resume their leadership role. In this case, the voting group has four full days to disagree, failing which the president’s powers are fully reinstated. If the voting group disagrees with the president’s claim, they hold a vote in Congress to decide the president’s ability to serve.
This section of the amendment has similarities to the impeachment process, however, it only allows for the temporary suspension of the president, with the vice president acting as the president until the next election.
The amendment is intentionally broad, leaving open the interpretation of what constitutes a president’s inability to carry out their duties. There are few formal limits on what can be considered presidential inability as long as the vice president, a majority of Cabinet members, and a supermajority of Congress can agree. Although it has never been used, the possibility has been considered recently.
Who could use it to remove Biden as president?
The vice president, Kamala Harris, and the majority of the president’s cabinet have the right to remove Biden as the president, as stated in Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.
Section 4 of the 25th Amendment allows the vice president and a majority of the president’s cabinet to declare the president unfit for duty.
There are calls for Vice President Kamala Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Biden from office, but it’s a high standard for removing a democratically elected president. The amendment was designed to prevent partisan misuse and gives the vice president and the cabinet the power to decide.
Congress was given the option of appointing an alternative body, such as an independent medical panel or a standing bipartisan committee, to decide questions of presidential incapacity. But no steps have been taken towards it yet.
