Amendment XXV
Ratified: February 10, 1967
Summary
Addresses presidential succession and disability.
Full Text
In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
History and Context
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 exposed a terrifying ambiguity in the Constitution. What would happen if the President were not killed, but merely disabled? Who would be in charge? And how would a vacancy in the Vice Presidency be filled? The Twenty-fifth Amendment was created to answer these chilling questions. It provides a clear procedure for presidential succession and disability. It codifies the tradition that the Vice President becomes President if the office is vacated, and it creates a mechanism for the President to temporarily hand over power, or for power to be taken from him if he is deemed unable to discharge his duties. It is the Constitution's emergency plan for the nuclear age.