25th Amendment and Presidential Disability

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.

For the other 26 amendments and how any amendment passes, see our guide to all 27 constitutional amendments.

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.

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.

1. 1841 John Tyler declares himself president William Henry Harrison dies a month into his term. Tyler claims the office and its title, not just its powers, and Congress recognizes him as president despite objections.
2. 1881 Garfield lingers 79 days The Cabinet favors Chester Arthur taking on the duties but splits over whether Garfield could reclaim them, so nobody acts. Arthur stays away to avoid seeming to usurp the office.
3. 1919 Wilson’s stroke is kept from view Edith Wilson, the president’s physician, and his secretary screen all visitors. When Cabinet members discuss having Vice President Thomas Marshall take over, Wilson’s physician and secretary end the discussion.
4. 1958 Eisenhower and Nixon write their own rule After a heart attack, surgery, and a stroke, Eisenhower releases a written agreement with Nixon. It has no legal force and, in its own words, applies to the two of them only.
5. 1963 Kennedy is assassinated The vice presidency sits empty for 14 months and the next in line is a 71-year-old Speaker of the House of Representatives. Before the year ends, Senator Birch Bayh introduces the proposal that becomes the amendment.
6. 1967 The Twenty-Fifth Amendment is ratified Ratification completes on February 10, 126 years after Tyler set the precedent it finally codified.

Source: Congressional Research Service, R45394.

A Century of Presidential Inability With No Rule for It: 1841: John Tyler declares himself president (William Henry Harrison dies a month into his term. Tyler claims the office and its title, not just its powers, and Congress recognizes him as president despite objections.). 1881: Garfield lingers 79 days (The Cabinet favors Chester Arthur taking on the duties but splits over whether Garfield could reclaim them, so nobody acts. Arthur stays away to avoid seeming to usurp the office.). 1919: Wilson’s stroke is kept from view (Edith Wilson, the president’s physician, and his secretary screen all visitors. When Cabinet members discuss having Vice President Thomas Marshall take over, Wilson’s physician and secretary end the discussion.). 1958: Eisenhower and Nixon write their own rule (After a heart attack, surgery, and a stroke, Eisenhower releases a written agreement with Nixon. It has no legal force and, in its own words, applies to the two of them only.). 1963: Kennedy is assassinated (The vice presidency sits empty for 14 months and the next in line is a 71-year-old Speaker of the House of Representatives. Before the year ends, Senator Birch Bayh introduces the proposal that becomes the amendment.). 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 79 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 disabling stroke on October 2 that paralyzed his left side and affected his vision and speech. His wife Edith, his physician, and his secretary screened all visitors and were reported to make policy decisions for him, while 28 bills became law without his signature. When Cabinet members discussed having Vice President Thomas Marshall take over, Wilson’s physician and secretary ended the discussion.

The paralysis came from a design flaw. In 1881 the Cabinet could not agree on whether a recovered president could take the powers back, and with no answer to that question, nobody acted in 1881 or 1919.

1955 to 1958. Dwight D. Eisenhower had a heart attack in September 1955, surgery for an intestinal blockage in June 1956, and later a mild stroke. With no constitutional mechanism available, he and Vice President Richard Nixon wrote their own. Their agreement, released on March 3, 1958, said Eisenhower would notify Nixon if he could, that Nixon would decide after consultation if Eisenhower could not communicate, and that Eisenhower would decide when the inability ended. Its text says it was meant to apply to the two of them 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 survived a heart attack in 1955, the vice presidency sat empty for 14 months, and the next person in line was a 71-year-old Speaker of the House. Congress proposed the amendment in 1965 and ratification finished on February 10, 1967.

Four Sections, Four Different Problems

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 declared himself president. Some objected, but Congress recognized him as president. 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. That rule is why some scholars argue a twice-elected president could return by succession, a theory our 22nd Amendment explainer weighs against the 12th Amendment.

Section 2 solved a quieter problem. A vice-presidential vacancy used to persist until the next election, which happened every time a vice president died, resigned, or succeeded a president who died.

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

Counts of six leave out 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.

1. December 6, 1973 Section 2: Gerald Ford Ford confirmed as Vice President after Spiro Agnew resigned.
2. August 9, 1974 Section 1: Gerald Ford Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal and Ford became President, not Acting President. It is the only time Section 1 has been used.
3. December 19, 1974 Section 2: Nelson Rockefeller Rockefeller confirmed as Vice President, filling the vacancy Ford left.
4. 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.
5. June 29, 2002 Section 3: Dick Cheney Colonoscopy. The first transfer to cite Section 3 explicitly.
6. July 21, 2007 Section 3: Dick Cheney Colonoscopy.
7. November 19, 2021 Section 3: Kamala Harris Colonoscopy. Harris became the first woman to hold the powers of the presidency.

Source: Congressional Research Service, R45394.

Every Use of the 25th Amendment: December 6, 1973: Section 2: Gerald Ford (Ford confirmed as Vice President after Spiro Agnew resigned.). August 9, 1974: Section 1: Gerald Ford (Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal and Ford became President, not Acting President. It is the only time Section 1 has been used.). 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.).

Three of the seven came in 14 months, from October 1973 to December 1974. Spiro Agnew resigned in October 1973, 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. Nixon resigned under the threat of impeachment over Watergate, the Miller Center notes.

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.

How Long Each Acting President Served

Category	Value
George H. W. Bush, 1985	min474
Dick Cheney, 2002	min135
Dick Cheney, 2007	min132
Kamala Harris, 2021	min85

Includes Section 3 transfers only, because Section 4 has never been used. Source: Congressional Research Service, R45394.

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 that he was “not intending to set a precedent” (his July 13, 1985 letter). The amendment’s scholars disagreed. John Feerick wrote that Reagan “must have used Section 3,” and Senator Birch Bayh, its chief author, said “there was no other way it could have been done.” 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

1. 1 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.
2. 2 Immediately The vice president becomes Acting President This happens the moment the declaration is transmitted. The president keeps the office and loses its powers.
3. 3 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.
4. 4 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 stays in power.
5. 5 Within 48 hours Congress assembles If it is not already in session, Congress must convene to take up the question.
6. 6 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, or a missed deadline all return power to the president. The bar is the same as a veto override, and the amendment’s authors insisted during debate that Section 4 was not meant to remove an unpopular or failed president, CRS reports.

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 time. “Historically, Vice Presidents have been very hesitant to exercise what power they may have or to appear disloyal to the President,” John Feerick wrote, as CRS quotes him.

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 as he left a Washington hotel. The bullet missed his heart by less than an inch, the Miller Center notes, and he went into surgery.

That day White House counsel Fred Fielding and senior staff consulted a draft contingency manual on presidential inability, CRS reports. No one transferred the powers of the office, under Section 3 or Section 4.

Nobody signed anything, and Section 4 has still never been used.

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.

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.

Section 4 Calls and the 2026 Commission Bill

Calls to declare Donald Trump unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office have recurred through 2025 and 2026. In April 2026, after Trump said of Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Democratic members of Congress wrote to Vice President JD Vance. Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s letter of April 7 asked him and the Cabinet to invoke Section 4, and Rep. John Larson sent a similar letter on April 8. No declaration followed.

That gap is what the newest proposal tries to close. On April 14, 2026, Representative Jamie Raskin introduced H.R. 8275, the Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of the Office Act. It would build the “other body” Section 4 has allowed since 1967.

The bill text sets out a 17-member commission, split evenly between medicine and experience:

• Eight physicians. The four congressional leaders each pick two, and one of each pair must be a psychiatrist.
• Eight former senior officials. Each has served as president, vice president, secretary of state, attorney general, treasury secretary, defense secretary, or surgeon general. Each party’s leaders jointly pick four.
• A chair elected by the other 16, who cannot be one of them.

No sitting elected official, federal employee, or member of the armed forces could serve. The commission would examine a president only when Congress passes a concurrent resolution directing it to, and under Section 4 the vice president would still have to join any declaration. The bill has 85 cosponsors, all Democrats, and no action since its referral to the Judiciary and Rules Committees, according to its bill status on October 3, 2026.

Where Each Route Under the 25th Amendment Stands

As of October 3, 2026

• Section 1, succession Law, used once

  Gerald Ford became president when Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974.

• Section 2, filling the vice presidency Law, used twice

  Nelson Rockefeller was confirmed in December 1974.

• Section 3, a voluntary handoff Law, used four times

  Kamala Harris held the powers for 85 minutes on November 19, 2021.

• Section 4 through the Cabinet Law, never used

  Members of Congress asked Vance to act in April 2026. No declaration followed. (source)

• Section 4 through a commission (H.R. 8275) Proposal, in committee

  Introduced April 14, 2026 with 85 cosponsors. Referred to the Judiciary and Rules Committees, with no action since. (source)

Source: Congressional Research Service, R45394; Congress.gov

Advocacy groups have pressed the Cabinet route in the meantime. Common Cause has called on the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, arguing that President Trump is unfit to serve.

Neither path has moved. Section 4 was written to require broad agreement across parties and branches, so a removal that cannot clear two-thirds of both chambers fails under the rules the drafters chose.

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. Walter Shapiro, writing for the Brennan Center for Justice in January 2018 in The Unworkable Amendment, argued that requiring two-thirds of both the House and Senate to keep a president out makes the section work only with near-unanimity about the president’s condition. A president whose party holds more than a third of either chamber would return to office.

The other side calls that same bar the whole point. Shapiro himself called the high bar a “valid assumption,” and the amendment’s authors built in checks so that Section 4 could not be used to remove an unpopular president, CRS reports. A lower threshold, on this view, would give 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.

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 went into surgery 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. After Ronald Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981, White House counsel Fred Fielding and senior staff consulted a draft contingency manual on presidential inability, and no transfer of power followed.

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 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.

Can Congress invoke the 25th Amendment on its own?

No. Congress can pass a law naming a body to replace the Cabinet in the Section 4 decision, and it rules on a contested case by two-thirds of each chamber. The vice president still has to sign every Section 4 declaration, so Congress cannot start one alone.

What You Can Do

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Read the amendment yourself. The full text is four paragraphs and takes about two minutes.
4. Follow the related powers. Our explainers on impeachment, executive orders, and martial law cover the other constitutional limits on presidential power.