Amendment 25 — Presidential succession

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1967 amendment enumerating presidential succession

"Twenty-fifth Amendment" redirects here. For other uses, see Twenty-fifth Amendment (disambiguation).

The Twenty-fifth Amendment ( Amendment XXV) to the United States Constitution addresses issues related to presidential succession and disability.

It clarifies that the vice president becomes president if the president dies, resigns, or is removed from office by impeachment. It also establishes the procedure for filling a vacancy in the office of the vice president.

The amendment provides for the temporary transfer of the president's powers and duties to the vice president, either on the president's initiative alone or on the initiative of the vice president, together with a majority of the president's cabinet. In either case, the vice president becomes the acting president until the president's powers and duties are restored.

The amendment was submitted to the states on July 6, 1965, by the 89th Congress, and was adopted on February 10, 1967, the day the requisite number of states (38) ratified it.[1]

Ratification

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Nebraska was the first state to ratify the amendment, on July 12, 1965. Ratification became complete when Nevada became the 38th state to ratify it, on February 10, 1967.[note 7]

When President Lyndon B. Johnson underwent planned surgery in 1965, he was unable to temporarily transfer power to Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey because the amendment's ratification remained incomplete. On February 23, 1967, at the White House ceremony certifying the ratification, Johnson said:

It was 180 years ago, in the closing days of the Constitutional Convention, that the Founding Fathers debated the question of Presidential disability. John Dickinson of Delaware asked this question: "What is the extent of the term 'disability' and who is to be the judge of it?" No one replied. It is hard to believe that until last week our Constitution provided no clear answer. Now, at last, the 25th amendment clarifies the crucial clause that provides for succession to the Presidency and for filling a Vice Presidential vacancy.[34]