WEBVTT - What Is the 25th Amendment?

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.360
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hi, brain Stuff,

0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:10.280
<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogel bomb here. If you've been through in American

0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:13.920
<v Speaker 1>history or government class, some constitutional facts probably left a

0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:18.000
<v Speaker 1>lasting impression. For example, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, and

0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:20.919
<v Speaker 1>the nineteenth Amendment afforded women the right to vote. But

0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:23.880
<v Speaker 1>there are twenty seven amendments to the Constitution, and you

0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:26.239
<v Speaker 1>may not have ever had a reason to ruminate on.

0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.280
<v Speaker 1>The twenty five. Twenty Amendment has received special attention as

0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:34.080
<v Speaker 1>news stories regarding President Donald Trump's fitness for office have emerged.

0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:37.920
<v Speaker 1>The amendment was created during the Cold War following President

0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:41.479
<v Speaker 1>Dwight D. Eisenhower's three serious illnesses and President John F.

0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:45.879
<v Speaker 1>Kennedy's nine sixty three assassination. Proposed by Congress and ratified

0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:49.200
<v Speaker 1>by the States following it provides the procedures for replacing

0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:53.440
<v Speaker 1>the president or vice president in case of death, removal, resignation,

0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:58.440
<v Speaker 1>or incapacitation. Eisenhower originally entered into a letter agreement that

0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:01.280
<v Speaker 1>stated if his health impeded his ability to run the country,

0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.640
<v Speaker 1>power would be transferred to his vice president, Richard Nixon.

0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:07.480
<v Speaker 1>This led to the official amendment that clarified the rules

0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:11.080
<v Speaker 1>around transfer of power in the event of an incapacitated president.

0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:14.839
<v Speaker 1>After numerous congressional hearings, the final version passed the House

0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.560
<v Speaker 1>and Senate in nineteen sixty five and was ratified on

0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:22.440
<v Speaker 1>February ninety seven. There are four sections to the twenty Amendment.

0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:25.360
<v Speaker 1>Section one stipulates that the vice president will assume the

0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:28.640
<v Speaker 1>role of president in case of death or resignation. Section

0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.360
<v Speaker 1>two covers the event of a vacancy in the office

0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:33.840
<v Speaker 1>of the vice president. In such case, the president is

0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.000
<v Speaker 1>responsible for nominating a candidate, who must be confirmed by

0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.960
<v Speaker 1>a majority vote of both houses of Congress. The history

0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:42.039
<v Speaker 1>of section to ensures that there is both the president

0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:46.080
<v Speaker 1>and vice president at all times. Section three states that

0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:49.120
<v Speaker 1>the president has the discretion to declare his own inability

0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:51.880
<v Speaker 1>to carry out the job and allows him to temporarily

0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.960
<v Speaker 1>ceed power to the vice president. It makes it clear, however,

0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.600
<v Speaker 1>that the vice president does not assume the office or

0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:02.360
<v Speaker 1>title of president. Action for to date has never been implemented,

0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.600
<v Speaker 1>but it's the peace of the amendment currently receiving media attention.

0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.720
<v Speaker 1>The language empowers the vice president and the cabinet to

0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:13.720
<v Speaker 1>declare a president incapacitated to quote the Amendment, whenever the

0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:17.079
<v Speaker 1>Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers

0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.080
<v Speaker 1>of the executive Departments or of such other body as

0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:23.440
<v Speaker 1>Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro

0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:25.799
<v Speaker 1>Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House

0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.160
<v Speaker 1>of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable

0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:32.079
<v Speaker 1>to discharge the powers and duties of his office. The

0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:35.600
<v Speaker 1>vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of

0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:39.079
<v Speaker 1>the office as acting president. Section four addresses the problem

0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:41.880
<v Speaker 1>of a president who is unable or unwilling to acknowledge

0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:45.120
<v Speaker 1>his or her inability to discharge the powers and duties

0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.880
<v Speaker 1>of the presidency. It would be used most likely if

0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:52.080
<v Speaker 1>a president falls unexpectedly unconscious, though it also clearly applies

0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.000
<v Speaker 1>when a president is incapacitated because of some other mental

0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.360
<v Speaker 1>or physical inability. You may recall the invocation of the

0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:00.800
<v Speaker 1>twenty five Amendment as a result of the Watergate scandal

0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.080
<v Speaker 1>in the nineteen seventies. President Nixon invoked it to replace

0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:08.040
<v Speaker 1>resigning Vice President Spiro Agnew with General Ford. Then, when

0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.240
<v Speaker 1>Ford replaced Nixon as President, Ford invoked it to appoint

0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:14.840
<v Speaker 1>Nelson Rockefeller to succeed him as vice president. However, in

0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.600
<v Speaker 1>order for Section four to be implemented, the vice president

0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:20.440
<v Speaker 1>and a majority of the cabinet must declare the president

0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.280
<v Speaker 1>incapacitated in a written statement to the Speaker of the

0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.840
<v Speaker 1>House of Representatives and the President pro tem of the Senate.

0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.880
<v Speaker 1>Once that happens, presidential powers are automatically transferred to the

0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:35.480
<v Speaker 1>vice president. In order for Congress to successfully declare President disabled,

0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:38.280
<v Speaker 1>two thirds in each chamber must conclude that he is

0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:41.760
<v Speaker 1>unable to handle the office. The disability clause of the

0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.960
<v Speaker 1>twenty five Amendment has been invoked multiple times since ratification.

0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.720
<v Speaker 1>Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan invoked

0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:51.320
<v Speaker 1>it during medical procedures, though it was never used when

0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:55.400
<v Speaker 1>Reagan was shot in However, section four has never been

0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:59.400
<v Speaker 1>invoked to remove a president from office. John Hoodak, Deputy

0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.560
<v Speaker 1>director for the Center for Effective Public Management and Senior

0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.880
<v Speaker 1>Fellow for Governance Studies at the Briggings Institute, writes that

0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:09.160
<v Speaker 1>the process is more difficult than impeachment and is reserved

0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:14.120
<v Speaker 1>only for truly unique and dire circumstances. So could Section

0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.760
<v Speaker 1>four possibly be applied to President Trump because the vast

0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:20.880
<v Speaker 1>majority of Trump's cabinet would need to support the president's removal.

0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:23.919
<v Speaker 1>Many speculate that the invocation of the amendment during the

0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:28.880
<v Speaker 1>Trump presidency is not realistic. At Politico, journalist and Karney wrote,

0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.159
<v Speaker 1>the amendment is purposefully set up to require a high

0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:35.120
<v Speaker 1>burden of proof, and there's no evidence that Vice President

0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:37.640
<v Speaker 1>Mike Pence or the majority of Trump's cabinet have turned

0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:42.400
<v Speaker 1>on him. Unprecedented events, from Michael Wolfe's book detailing turmoil

0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:44.760
<v Speaker 1>inside the White House to the President's taunts of other

0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:47.960
<v Speaker 1>world leaders via Twitter, have the potential to lead to

0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.560
<v Speaker 1>unprecedented action. The bottom line, however, is that for now,

0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:55.880
<v Speaker 1>it's all simply speculation. Former Harvard Law School professor Alan

0:04:55.880 --> 0:05:00.560
<v Speaker 1>Derschwitz told Politico the twenty Amendment would require, for mental capacity,

0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:04.360
<v Speaker 1>a major psychotic break. This is hope over reality. If

0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:06.919
<v Speaker 1>we don't like someone's politics, we rail against him, we

0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.960
<v Speaker 1>campaign against him. We don't use the psychiatric system against him.

0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:20.440
<v Speaker 1>That's just dangerous. Today's episode was written by Michelle Konstantinovski

0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.200
<v Speaker 1>and produced by Tristan McNeil. For more on this and

0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.240
<v Speaker 1>lots of other political topics, visit our poem planet how

0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:38.000
<v Speaker 1>Stuff Works dot com.