What are the exact provisions of the 25th Amendment for removing a president?
Executive summary
The Twenty‑Fifth Amendment lays out four distinct provisions: the vice president becomes president if the president dies, resigns, or is removed; the president nominates a new vice president who must be confirmed by both houses of Congress; the president may temporarily transfer power to the vice president by declaration; and the vice president together with a majority of the Cabinet (or a body Congress might designate) can declare the president unable to discharge duties, triggering a process that temporarily makes the vice president acting president unless the president successfully contests it — a mechanism never formally used [1] [2] [3].
1. Section 1 — Automatic succession on death, resignation or removal
Section 1 is categorical: “In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President,” resolving prior ambiguity about whether the vice president merely exercises powers or actually becomes president; that plain rule governs permanent removal after impeachment and conviction or after resignation or death [1] [4] [5].
2. Section 2 — Filling a vice‑presidential vacancy
Section 2 requires that when the vice presidency is vacant the president nominates a successor who takes office only after confirmation by a majority of both the House and the Senate, ensuring the vice‑presidential slot is not left open for long and clarifying procedures created after the Kennedy assassination raised succession concerns [6] [7] [8].
3. Section 3 — Voluntary, temporary transfer of power
Section 3 allows the president to declare in writing that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office, at which point the vice president becomes acting president until the president sends a written declaration that he is able again; it has been used for planned medical procedures and is a presidentially initiated, temporary transfer [9] [3].
4. Section 4 — Involuntary removal or temporary transfer without the president’s consent
Section 4 is the operative text for removing a president who will not or cannot concede inability: the vice president and a majority of the “principal officers of the executive departments” (commonly read as Cabinet heads) — or another body Congress may prescribe — send written declarations to congressional leaders stating the president is unable to perform duties, and the vice president immediately becomes acting president; if the president contests, Congress must decide within 21 days and requires a two‑thirds vote in both houses to sustain the vice president’s claim, otherwise the president resumes office [1] [3] [10].
5. Practical, legal and political realities of invoking Section 4
Although Section 4 provides a legal pathway, scholars and institutions note it is deliberately procedural and politically fraught: its language is vague on “inability,” Congress has never established an alternative body to replace the Cabinet for this purpose, the Supreme Court has not squarely interpreted Section 4, and commentators warn its first use could trigger a constitutional and political crisis — these considerations help explain why Section 4 has never been formally invoked [1] [11] [12] [9].
6. What “removal” under the 25th Amendment means in practice and how it differs from impeachment
Under Section 1 the vice president becomes president permanently after removal by impeachment and conviction in the Senate, while Section 4 provides a mechanism for interim transfer of authority based on inability and requires an initial executive‑branch determination plus a high congressional threshold to make that determination permanent; experts observe the amendment sets both a lower and a higher bar in different respects and was designed to preserve continuity while protecting against politically motivated seizures of power [5] [13] [3].
Limitations: reporting and sources here summarize the Amendment’s text, historical background, and scholarly commentary; the Supreme Court has not definitively settled Section 4 questions, and Congress has not legislated an alternative body to the Cabinet, so some procedural hypotheticals remain unresolved in practice [1] [10].