Has the 25th anebdnebt been invoked
Executive summary
The Twenty-Fifth Amendment has been used several times since ratification in 1967, primarily to fill vice‑presidential vacancies and to allow presidents to temporarily transfer power under Section 3; however, the forcible removal mechanism in Section 4 — the provision that would allow the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare a president unable to discharge duties — has never been invoked [1] [2] [3]. Calls by lawmakers to activate Section 4 at various political moments (for example after January 6, 2021) did not result in its invocation [4] [2].
1. What “invoked” means under the 25th and how Americans have actually used it
The Amendment contains distinct procedures: Section 1 clarifies succession if a president dies, resigns, or is removed; Section 2 prescribes filling a vacant vice presidency; Section 3 permits a president to voluntarily transfer power to the vice president; and Section 4 allows the vice president plus a majority of principal officers (or another body Congress establishes) to declare the president unable to serve, triggering a congressional process [5] [6]. Historically, Sections 1 and 2 have been used in ordinary succession matters — Gerald Ford succeeded Nixon under Section 1 and then used Section 2 to nominate Nelson Rockefeller as vice president — while Section 3 has been used for short, voluntary transfers during medical procedures [2] [7].
2. The practical record: what has happened, and what has not
Since ratification, the Amendment’s provisions have been employed a handful of times: vice‑presidential resignations and nominations in the 1970s used Sections 1 and 2 [1] [2], and presidents have temporarily transferred power under Section 3 for routine medical procedures — for example, President George W. Bush transferred power briefly for colonoscopies and similar temporary transfers occurred in administrations thereafter [8] [4]. By contrast, Section 4 — the involuntary removal route — has never been executed; scholars and the Library of Congress note that Section 4 “has never been used” despite being debated during crises such as the Reagan shooting and after the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack [7] [3] [4].
3. Near‑misses and political theater: why Section 4 hasn’t been invoked
There have been episodes where aides or lawmakers discussed Section 4 or prepared documents, but stopped short of invoking it: Reagan’s staff debated papers after his 1981 shooting and later treated Section 3’s procedures loosely in 1985, yet the formal Section 4 process was not triggered [7] [9]. After January 6, 2021, senior members of Congress and House leaders urged Vice President Pence to consider Section 4, and Speaker Pelosi reportedly explored it as an alternative to impeachment, but those appeals did not produce formal action [4] [2]. Legal and political barriers described in authoritative sources — including the need for a majority of Cabinet and the subsequent congressional supermajority vote to sustain removal — help explain why Section 4 is both legally fraught and politically hazardous to deploy [6] [3].
4. Competing narratives, agendas, and the limits of the record
Calls to “invoke the 25th” often serve immediate political aims: opponents of a sitting president can use the phrase to focus attention on fitness for office, while allies portray such efforts as partisan attacks; both dynamics appeared in public debate around January 2021 [4]. Scholarly and government records emphasize caution: the Amendment’s drafters and later legal commentators intended Section 4 as an extraordinary safety valve, not a routine political tool [6] [7]. Reporting confirms the factual record — Sections 1–3 have been used in limited ways, Section 4 has not — but available sources do not provide internal Cabinet vote records for every crisis, so reporting must rely on official statements and archival accounts for conclusions [3] [9].