Tweets draw 25th Amendment fire

Wednesday, July 5, 2017 - 16:38 StudyHall.Rocks

The president's tweets have raised eyebrows.

If you follow Twitter, you’ve noticed an odd subject trending: #25th Amendment.

The constitutional amendment outlines what to do if a president dies or is unable to fulfill his duties. In this case, #25thAmendment and #25thAmendmentnow went viral following a week in which President Donald Trump first used his Twitter account to launch personal attacks against MSNBC anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, and later posted a doctored video that appeared to show him wrestling a man (with a CNN logo substituted for the head) to the ground.
But why would the president's behavior on a social media website bring about interest in the 25th Amendment? Here is the rundown:

What does the amendment say? The amendment puts in writing the order of presidential succession.

“Section 1. In case of the removal of the president from office or of his death or resignation, the vice president shall become president.

“Section 2. 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.

“Section 3. 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.

“Section 4. 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 48 hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within 21 days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within 21 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.”

Why did the amendment come about? Proposed in the years immediately following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the amendment was an effort to resolve questions of what happens if the president is disabled and cannot fulfill his duty, according to the Congress.gov website.
Those questions had been debated for some time, and with good reason. On eight occasions, a president has died in office:

William Henry Harrison (1773-1841)
Zachary Taylor (1784-1850)
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
James Garfield (1831-1881)
William McKinley (1843-1901)
Warren G. Harding (1865-1923)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963).

    A ninth, Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994), resigned in the wake of scandal. Scholar Ruth Silva of Pennsylvania State University (1920-1995), a political scientist and authority on presidential succession, wrote a book in 1951 examining the adequacy of existing law on presidential succession, according to the Journal of Politics from the University of Chicago. “The underlying thesis of this study is that the men who framed the Constitution never intended the vice president to become president when there is a vacancy in the higher office, but that he should merely act as president ad interim,” said a review in the Journal. “Thus the ‘defect’ of having the presidential functions discharged for nearly four years by one who was not chosen as president is actually not the result of the constitutional provision, but of the precedent set when John Tyler assumed the presidency for the remainder of William Henry Harrison’s term.”
     Silva argued that the practice of having the vice president step in was more problematic when a president was disabled, as opposed to dying immediately. For example, President James Garfield was shot July 2, 1881, and remained alive, languishing, until his death Sept. 19.
     Similarly, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a serious stroke in 1919. Afterward, his wife, Edith, was “functionally running the Executive branch of government for the remainder of Wilson's second term,” recounts the White House’s biography.
     In both cases, the president was unable to lead the government. In effect, the country was without an elected leader.

Introduction of the amendment: On Jan. 6, 1965, Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., and Rep. Emanuel Celler, D-N.Y., introduced joint resolutions in the Senate and House of Representatives to clarify rules of presidential succession and inability. The proposals formed the foundation of the 25th Amendment, according to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
The amendment was approved by Congress on July 6, 1965. After ratification by the states, President Lyndon Johnson certified the amendment Feb. 23, 1967. As a result, the country's law includes a procedure to remove a president if others in government decide that he is in any way disabled.

To know more:

The American Presidency, Smithsonian Institution: Life and Death in the White House.
Congress.gov: Presidential vacancy and disability.
Cornell Law School, U.S. Constitution, 25th Amendment.
Gerald Ford Presidential Library: The establishment and first uses of the 25th Amendment.
The University of Chicago Press Journals, Journal of Politics, Book Reviews, Presidential Succession (University of Michigan Press; 1951), by Ruth Silva.
White House.gov: Edith Bolling Galt Wilson.

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