XXV

Amendment XXV
“In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
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.
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. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.”

Section 1 says that if the President is for any reason removed from office, then the
Vice President becomes President.
Section 2 says that if there is no VP for some reason, then the President may nominate someone to be voted on and confirmed by the Senate and HofR.
Section 3 says that if the President expresses that he/she cannot perform their duties, then the VP becomes Acting President.
Section 4 says that the Vice President, along with members of cabinet and Congress can come together and decide that the president is unable to perform his duties and in that case the VP becomes acting President unless the President expresses otherwise, in which case there would have to be a majority vote to determine whether the President should resume his/her powers.

This amendment gave more clarification as to how succession should happen when a President is removed from office, a VP is removed from office, or a President is unable, for some reason to fulfill the duties of the job. The Twenty-fifth Amendment accurately describes what should happen in the event of tragedy within the Presidency, although I do wonder what would happen if something were to happen to the President and the Vice President?



This is a video that depicts, in a short, skit-form, what would happen in the event of the President’s death. It was a project put together by some kids and I thought this was a simple definition of the 25th Amendment. The video shows a re-enactment of the assassination of a president during a parade and shortly after, the Vice President is sworn into presidency.



This video shows what would happen if the President was deemed unable to perform his/her duties by Congress. In this video the President is eaten by a zombie and becomes unable to perform Presidential duties and Congress decides to remove the President from office. I included this video because I liked the video game effect used to demonstrate the amendment in action. I have yet to see a video that uses a video game effect. I thought the video did a pretty good job of portraying a scenario in which the President was unable to do his/her job.