Kennedy, because Congress realized there was no clear answer to who was supposed to be in charge. It addressed the Kennedy situation by saying that whenever a president dies or resigns, the vice president becomes president. But a different provision covers presidential illnesses like Covid A president who knows he is or will be unable to perform the duties of the office notifies Congress, and the vice president becomes the acting president.
That arrangement continues until the president sends another notice to declare that he is once again able to do the job. The amendment also contains a provision that has never been invoked to cover the eventuality of a president unable to do the job but also unable to notify Congress.
If the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet members determine that the president is unable to carry out his duties, then the vice president becomes the acting president. In addition, the rules and bylaws of the two major political parties govern what would happen if a presidential candidate resigns or dies before the general election, according to John Fortier, an expert on presidential succession at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
The national committee of the affected party would choose a new candidate. If the candidate dies after the election but before the Electoral College meets in mid-December, the national party would again choose a replacement and the electors would vote for that person, Fortier said.
The 25 th Amendment made it clear that the Vice President becomes President in the case of death, resignation and removal from office. It also said that a President can nominate someone to become Vice President if that office is vacant, with the approval of Congress.
However, Section 3 and 4 established new roles for the Vice President if the President were unable to perform his or her official duties.
Section 3 allows for a President to communicate a disability to Congress and it has been done several times when Presidents have undergone routine medical procedures.
Under Section 3, the Vice President temporarily acts as President. Section 4 deals with a different scenario — when a President is unable or unwilling to communicate a disability. Under Section 4, the Vice President, either acting with the Cabinet or a group designated by Congress, can declare the President disabled.
Certainly, one potential constitutional crisis would be the lack of a Vice President in office to start a Section 4 disability review of a President. Another is the lack of a constitutional or legal precedent for someone to act as a temporary Vice President, to start the Section 4 review process.
Clearly, the constitutional role of the Vice President has expanded since , and it seems unlikely that the position would remain vacant for long in the era after the 25th amendment was ratified. Warren Harding president 29 died at 57 in of a heart attack and was not, as it was rumored at the time, poisoned by his wife Florence, to whom he was unfaithful.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt number 32 died in at the age of 63, after years of poor health. In , John F. At 46, he was the youngest president at the end of his office. The vice-president in this case, Kamala Harris is sworn in to take over the presidential responsibilities until the end of the mandate.
Similarly, if the president is temporarily unable to serve, they have to communicate it in writing to the president pro tempore of the Senate who presides over the Senate in lieu of the vice-president and the Speaker of the House.
The vice-president then takes on presidential responsibility until the president lets the Senate and House know they can resume their duties. This has happened three times in US history: For about eight hours in , then vice-president George H W Bush acted as president while Ronald Reagan underwent colon cancer surgery.
In and , for two hours each time, vice-president Dick Cheney acted as president while George W Bush underwent two colonoscopies under anesthesia. If the vice-presidential seat is vacated, the president can nominate a successor, who then has to be confirmed by a simple majority vote in both houses of Congress.
The full extent of this provision was tested during the Richard Nixon presidency. First, his vice-president, Spiro Agnew, resigned in October Less than a year later, in August , Nixon resigned, and Ford was sworn in as his successor, leaving the vice-presidential office once again vacant.
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