What Is the 25th Amendment
The 25th Amendment is the part of the U.S. Constitution that says what happens when a president dies, resigns, is removed, or becomes unable to do the job. It also says how to fill an empty vice presidency. Ratified on February 10, 1967, it runs four paragraphs and takes about two minutes to read.
The amendment is four separate tools for four separate problems, not one procedure. Three are routine and have been used. The fourth, which lets other people declare a president unable to serve over that president’s objection, has never been used.
Key facts
- The amendment has been used seven times since 1967, not the six most summaries count (Congressional Research Service)
- Section 4 has never been invoked. In 59 years, no vice president and Cabinet have tried to declare a president unable to serve
- Every transfer of presidential power under the amendment totals 13 hours and 46 minutes, all four for medical procedures
- Section 4 lets Congress replace the Cabinet with a body of its own design. Congress has never created that body
- Removal under Section 4 needs a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress, the same bar as overriding a veto
Why the 25th Amendment Exists
For most of American history the Constitution had a gap where this should have been. Article II, Section 1 said the vice president would take on “the powers and duties” of the office, and left almost everything else unanswered. Nobody knew whether the vice president became president or merely borrowed the job, and nobody knew who decided when a living president was too sick to serve.
The result was that nothing happened, repeatedly, at the worst possible moments.
- John Tyler simply declares himself president William Henry Harrison dies a month into his term. Tyler takes the office rather than the powers, nobody stops him, and nobody agrees he is right.
- Garfield lingers 80 days Chester Arthur does not act, because he and a Cabinet majority believe assuming the powers would permanently oust a president who might recover.
- Wilson’s stroke is hidden Thomas Marshall refuses to declare Wilson disabled. Edith Wilson and the president’s doctor control who reaches him for roughly 17 months.
- Eisenhower and Nixon write their own rule After a heart attack, surgery, and a stroke, the two men publish a private letter of understanding. It has no legal force and covers only them.
- Kennedy is assassinated The vice presidency sits empty and the next in line is a 71-year-old Speaker of the House of Representatives. Congress stops debating and starts drafting.
- The Twenty-Fifth Amendment is ratified Ratification completes on February 10, 126 years after Tyler set the precedent it finally codified.
Sources: Constitution Annotated, Amendment 25; Congressional Research Service, R45394.
A Century of Presidential Inability With No Rule for It: 1841 — John Tyler simply declares himself president (William Henry Harrison dies a month into his term. Tyler takes the office rather than the powers, nobody stops him, and nobody agrees he is right.). 1881 — Garfield lingers 80 days (Chester Arthur does not act, because he and a Cabinet majority believe assuming the powers would permanently oust a president who might recover.). 1919 — Wilson’s stroke is hidden (Thomas Marshall refuses to declare Wilson disabled. Edith Wilson and the president’s doctor control who reaches him for roughly 17 months.). 1958 — Eisenhower and Nixon write their own rule (After a heart attack, surgery, and a stroke, the two men publish a private letter of understanding. It has no legal force and covers only them.). 1963 — Kennedy is assassinated (The vice presidency sits empty and the next in line is a 71-year-old Speaker of the House of Representatives. Congress stops debating and starts drafting.). 1967 — The Twenty-Fifth Amendment is ratified (Ratification completes on February 10, 126 years after Tyler set the precedent it finally codified.).
1881. A gunman shot James Garfield on July 2. He lingered 80 days, mostly unable to work, and died on September 19. Vice President Chester Arthur never attempted to act in his place.
1919. Woodrow Wilson had a stroke on October 2 that left him blind in one eye and partly paralyzed. His wife Edith controlled access to him and hid how bad it was, running his correspondence for roughly 17 months. Vice President Thomas Marshall refused to declare Wilson disabled.
The paralysis came from a design flaw, not from cowardice. Commentators at the time argued that a vice president who took up the powers might never be able to hand them back, which would turn a temporary illness into a permanent removal. Faced with that risk, every vice president chose to do nothing.
1955 to 1958. Dwight D. Eisenhower had a heart attack in September 1955, surgery for ileitis in June 1956, and a stroke in November 1957. With no constitutional mechanism available, he and Vice President Richard Nixon wrote their own. Their letter of understanding, made public on March 3, 1958, said Eisenhower would notify Nixon if he could, that Nixon would decide for himself if Eisenhower could not communicate, and that Eisenhower alone would decide when the inability ended. The Constitution Annotated notes it was meant to apply to those two men only.
That private agreement is the direct ancestor of Sections 3 and 4. It had no legal force, which is exactly why an amendment was needed.
1963. The Kennedy assassination ended the debate. Lyndon Johnson had a history of heart trouble, the vice presidency sat empty, and the next person in line was a 71-year-old Speaker of the House. The vice presidency had already been vacant 16 times. Congress passed the amendment in 1965 and ratification finished on February 10, 1967.
Four Sections, Four Different Problems
What Each Section Does
| Section | The problem it solves | Who acts | Times used |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The president dies, resigns, or is removed | The vice president becomes president outright | 1 |
| 2 | The vice presidency is empty | President nominates, both chambers confirm by majority | 2 |
| 3 | The president knows they will be unable to serve | The president hands over power in writing, and takes it back the same way | 4 |
| 4 | The president is unable to serve and will not or cannot say so | Vice president plus a Cabinet majority, then Congress | 0 |
Source: Congressional Research Service, R45394; Constitution Annotated, Amendment 25
Two phrases in the text carry most of the weight. Read both exactly as written.
The trigger throughout is that the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” That is a test of capacity, not of behavior. Presidential disability is the subject; it says nothing about whether a president is doing the job badly, breaking the law, or losing an argument with the country. Removal of the president for those reasons is impeachment’s job, not this amendment’s.
Section 4 assigns the judgment to the vice president acting with “a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide.” The principal officers are the Cabinet secretaries. The second option is the one nobody talks about, and it matters more than the first.
Section 1 settled a question open since 1841, when John Tyler took over after William Henry Harrison died and simply declared himself president. He took the oath of office and nobody stopped him, though nobody agreed he was right either. Section 1 made Tyler’s answer the rule of presidential succession, so the vice president now takes the office of the president outright rather than borrowing its powers.
Section 2 solved a quieter problem. A vice-presidential vacancy used to simply persist until the next election, and the vice presidency had sat empty 16 separate times before 1967.
Section 3 is the piece Eisenhower and Nixon sketched by hand. A president sends a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate, the vice president becomes Acting President, and the president takes the office back with a second letter. Making it reversible is the whole point, because irreversibility is what froze Arthur and Marshall.
All Seven Uses, From Agnew to Harris
Most coverage says the amendment has been used six times. That count quietly drops Section 1, and Section 1 covers the most consequential use of all. Counting presidential succession alongside the transfers, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment has done real work seven times.
- Section 2: Gerald Ford Ford confirmed as Vice President after Spiro Agnew resigned in the midst of a bribery investigation.
- Section 1: Gerald Ford Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal and Ford became President, not Acting President. This is the only time a president has left office since ratification.
- Section 2: Nelson Rockefeller Rockefeller confirmed as Vice President, filling the vacancy Ford left.
- Section 3: George H. W. Bush Colon surgery. Reagan transferred the powers of the office while disclaiming that he was invoking Section 3.
- Section 3: Dick Cheney Colonoscopy. The first transfer to cite Section 3 explicitly.
- Section 3: Dick Cheney Colonoscopy.
- Section 3: Kamala Harris Colonoscopy. Harris became the first woman to hold the powers of the presidency.
Sources: Congressional Research Service, R45394; Constitution Annotated.
Every Use of the 25th Amendment: December 6, 1973 — Section 2: Gerald Ford (Ford confirmed as Vice President after Spiro Agnew resigned in the midst of a bribery investigation.). August 9, 1974 — Section 1: Gerald Ford (Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal and Ford became President, not Acting President. This is the only time a president has left office since ratification.). December 19, 1974 — Section 2: Nelson Rockefeller (Rockefeller confirmed as Vice President, filling the vacancy Ford left.). July 13, 1985 — Section 3: George H. W. Bush (Colon surgery. Reagan transferred the powers of the office while disclaiming that he was invoking Section 3.). June 29, 2002 — Section 3: Dick Cheney (Colonoscopy. The first transfer to cite Section 3 explicitly.). July 21, 2007 — Section 3: Dick Cheney (Colonoscopy.). November 19, 2021 — Section 3: Kamala Harris (Colonoscopy. Harris became the first woman to hold the powers of the presidency.).
The Watergate scandal produced three of the seven in 14 months. Spiro Agnew resigned in October 1973 while under investigation for bribery, and Gerald R. Ford was confirmed as vice president that December under Section 2, filling the vice-presidential vacancy Agnew left. When Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, Ford became president under Section 1. Ford then used Section 2 himself to install Nelson Rockefeller. Ford remains the only person to hold both offices without ever being elected to either, and the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment inquiry is what made all three steps necessary.
The other four are medical, and they are shorter than people assume.
Every transfer of presidential power in the amendment’s history fits inside a single working day.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| George H. W. Bush, 1985 | min474 |
| Dick Cheney, 2002 | min135 |
| Dick Cheney, 2007 | min132 |
| Kamala Harris, 2021 | min85 |
Source: Congressional Research Service, R45394. Section 3 transfers only; Section 4 has never been used.
Ronald Reagan’s 1985 transfer is the odd one. He signed the letter before colon surgery and George H. W. Bush held the powers from 11:28 a.m. to 7:22 p.m., but Reagan wrote that he did not believe the drafters intended the amendment to cover something so brief, and said he was not setting a precedent. Scholars and the amendment’s own framers disagreed with him, on the ground that there was no other lawful way to do what he did. George W. Bush cited Section 3 explicitly in 2002 and again in 2007, which settled the practice. When Joe Biden transferred power in November 2021, Kamala Harris became the first woman to hold the powers of the presidency, for 85 minutes.
How Section 4 Works
Section 4 is the involuntary route. It exists for a president who cannot do the job and will not or cannot say so, and every step is built to be hard.
The Section 4 Path, Step by Step
- Day 0 The vice president and Cabinet declare the president unable to serve It takes the vice president plus a majority of the principal officers of the executive departments, meaning the president’s own appointees. They send the declaration to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate.
- Immediately The vice president becomes Acting President This happens the moment the declaration is transmitted. The president keeps the office and loses its powers.
- Any time after The president objects in writing and takes the powers back A single letter saying no inability exists returns the powers to the president. Nothing stops this step.
- Within 4 days The vice president and Cabinet repeat the declaration To keep contesting it they must declare the president unable a second time, at the same threshold. If they do not, the president simply stays in power.
- Within 48 hours Congress assembles If it is not already in session, Congress must convene to take up the question.
- Within 21 days Both chambers vote, and two-thirds of each is needed to keep the president out If either chamber falls short, or the 21 days run out with no vote, the president resumes the powers of the office automatically.
Source: Constitution Annotated, Amendment 25, Section 4.
Two features of that path decide almost everything about it.
The president wins ties. If Congress does not reach two-thirds in both chambers within 21 days, the president resumes office automatically. A tied Senate, a failed vote, a missed deadline all return power to the president. The bar is deliberately the same as a veto override, because the drafters were more afraid of a Cabinet staging a coup than of a sick president staying too long.
And the people who must act are the people the president chose. A Cabinet majority means the president’s own appointees, each removable by that president at any moment. Asking them to move first is asking political appointees to end the career of the person who gave them the job.
Section 4 offers a way around that, and Congress has never taken it. The text lets Congress create “such other body” to make the judgment instead of the Cabinet. In 59 years Congress has never passed a law creating one, so the only route that exists is the one running through the president’s own appointees.
The Closest Section 4 Ever Came
On March 30, 1981, a gunman shot Ronald Reagan outside a Washington hotel. A bullet lodged an inch from his heart, and he was under anesthesia in surgery while the government tried to work out who was running it.
Half the Cabinet sat in the White House Situation Room. The other half worked from a makeshift command post at the hospital. Officials in the Situation Room discussed whether the 25th Amendment had to be invoked, and never did it. Vice President George H. W. Bush was on a plane returning from Texas. In the press room, Secretary of State Alexander Haig told reporters “I am in control here,” which he later explained as a claim to be the senior Cabinet officer present rather than a claim on the presidency. He was not next in line either way, because the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate both come before the Secretary of State.
Nobody signed anything. Reagan was alert again that evening, and the question dissolved. Section 4 matters most in exactly the moment its users are least able to act on it, when the people who would sign the declaration are busy keeping the president alive.
How the 25th Amendment Differs From Impeachment
People reach for both in the same political argument, but the two solve different problems. One measures whether a president can do the job. The other punishes what a president did.
Two Tools for Two Different Problems
| 25th Amendment, Section 4 | Impeachment | |
|---|---|---|
| What it addresses | Inability to do the job | Treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors |
| Who starts it | Vice president plus a Cabinet majority | The House of Representatives |
| Who decides | Two-thirds of both chambers | Two-thirds of the Senate |
| Effect | Vice president exercises the powers as Acting President, and it can be undone | Removal from office, permanently |
| Can the president fight back directly | Yes, with a written declaration that restarts the process | No, the Senate trial proceeds |
| Times used against a president | 0 | 4 impeachments of 3 presidents, 0 Senate convictions |
Source: Constitution Annotated, Amendment 25 and Article II, Section 4
A president can be fully capable and still commit an impeachable offense. A president can be entirely blameless and still be unable to serve after a stroke. Reaching for the 25th Amendment to punish conduct asks it to do a job it was not built for, and the demand fails on its own terms before anyone counts votes.
The 2026 Bill to Create the Missing Commission
Calls to declare Donald Trump unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office have recurred through 2025 and 2026, and they run into the same wall every time. The Cabinet would have to move first, and the Cabinet works for the president. That is the gap the newest proposal tries to close.
On April 14, 2026, Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced H.R. 8275, the Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of the Office Act. The bill would finally create the body Section 4 has always allowed and Congress has never built.
The commission would have 17 members. The four congressional leaders would each appoint retired senior executive-branch officials, and party leaders in both chambers would name physicians and psychiatrists. Those 16 appointees would then pick a 17th to chair, and no sitting official could serve. The bill designates that commission as the “other body” Section 4 lets Congress create in place of the Cabinet. It was referred to the Judiciary and Rules Committees, where it has stayed.
Advocacy groups have pressed the other route in the meantime. Common Cause has called on the Cabinet and Vice President Vance to act directly, arguing that President Trump is unfit to serve.
Neither path moves in a Republican-controlled Congress, and the reason is not only partisan. Section 4 was written to require broad agreement across parties and branches. A process that cannot clear two-thirds of both chambers is a process working as designed, whatever anyone thinks of the president it applies to.
Is Section 4’s Bar Too High
The two-thirds threshold is the amendment’s most argued-over feature, and careful people land on opposite sides of it.
One side calls Section 4 unworkable. The Brennan Center for Justice, in The Unworkable Amendment, argues that requiring two-thirds of both the House and Senate to keep a president out means the section functions only under near-unanimity. A genuinely incapacitated president with a loyal party could ride out the vote and keep the office.
The other side calls that same bar the whole point. The drafters set it at the veto-override level on purpose, because they feared a Cabinet or Congress removing a healthy president over policy more than they feared a sick one lingering. A lower threshold would hand a rival faction a way to overturn an election between elections.
Both readings accept the same text and the same history. The disagreement is over which danger is worse, a president who cannot serve but will not step aside, or a removal process easy enough to abuse. We do not declare a winner.
Common Misconceptions About the 25th Amendment
It is not a remedy for bad decisions. The text asks whether a president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties” of the office. Unpopularity, incompetence, and lawbreaking are different questions, and only lawbreaking is impeachment’s.
It does not let the Cabinet fire the president. A Section 4 declaration makes the vice president Acting President and starts a clock. The president can reverse it with one letter, and Congress decides the rest by two-thirds of both chambers.
Section 4 has never been used, but the amendment is not idle. Sections 1, 2, and 3 have been used seven times between them, including the transfer that made Gerald Ford president.
A president under anesthesia is not automatically replaced. Nothing happens on its own. Reagan was in surgery for hours in 1981 with no transfer at all, because Section 3 requires a president to sign something first.
The vice president does not gain the office under Section 3 or 4. They exercise the powers as Acting President. Only Section 1 makes someone president outright, and it has happened once, in 1974.
Frequently asked questions
Can the vice president and Cabinet remove a president on their own? No. They can make the vice president Acting President immediately, but the president can contest it in writing. If the president does, only a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate can keep the president out, and if that vote fails or never happens, the president resumes office.
Has Section 4 ever been invoked? Never, in 59 years. It came closest on March 30, 1981, when officials discussed it in the Situation Room during Reagan’s surgery after the assassination attempt, and did not act.
What is the difference between the 25th Amendment and impeachment? The 25th Amendment addresses inability to do the job and is reversible. Impeachment addresses high crimes and misdemeanors and removes a president permanently. A president can be capable and impeachable, or blameless and unable to serve.
Who decides whether a president is unable to serve? Right now, the vice president together with a majority of the Cabinet, and then Congress. Section 4 also lets Congress create a different body for the judgment, but Congress has never passed a law creating one.
Does a president stay president during a Section 3 transfer? Yes. The office does not change hands. The vice president exercises the powers as Acting President until the president sends a second written declaration reclaiming them, which has happened all four times.
How long has a vice president actually served as Acting President? Thirteen hours and 46 minutes in total, spread across four medical procedures between 1985 and 2021. The longest single stretch was 7 hours and 54 minutes, when George H. W. Bush held the powers during Reagan’s 1985 colon surgery.
What You Can Do
- Ask your representative to co-sponsor H.R. 8275, which would create the standing commission Section 4 has permitted since 1967 and Congress has never built. It sits in the Judiciary and Rules Committees.
- Keep the two tools straight when you argue. Calling for the 25th Amendment over conduct hands the other side an easy answer, because the amendment is about capacity. Impeachment is the instrument for misconduct.
- Read the amendment yourself. The full text is four paragraphs and takes about two minutes.
- Follow the related powers. Our explainers on impeachment, executive orders, and martial law cover the other constitutional limits on presidential power.