How many times has the 25th Amendment been formally invoked and in what circumstances?
Executive summary
The 25th Amendment has been formally used multiple times since its 1967 ratification: Section 2 (to fill a vice‑presidential vacancy) was used twice in 1973–74 when Nixon and then Ford nominated Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller as vice presidents; Section 3 (temporary transfer by a president) has been used repeatedly for short medical procedures; Section 4 (involuntary removal) has never completed the statutory removal process (available sources do not mention a successful Section 4 removal) [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What “invoked” means and the Amendment’s three practical parts
The 25th Amendment creates distinct procedures: Section 1 is automatic succession if the president dies or resigns; Section 2 lets the president nominate a vice president who assumes office after congressional confirmation; Section 3 allows a president to temporarily declare inability and hand power to the vice president; Section 4 permits the vice president and Cabinet (or other specified officers) to declare the president incapable over his objection, triggering a potentially contested congressional process [5] [4].
2. Formal uses to fill vice‑presidential vacancies — the Amendment’s first real test
The first formal, consequential uses were Section 2 applications in 1973–74. After Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973, Nixon nominated Republican House member Gerald R. Ford and Congress confirmed him under Section 2. Then when Nixon resigned in 1974 and Ford became president, Ford nominated Nelson Rockefeller as vice president and Congress again confirmed under Section 2 [1] [2].
3. Section 3: the quiet, routine transfers for medical procedures
Presidents have used Section 3 to temporarily transfer power to their vice presidents during medical procedures. A widely cited pattern: presidents have sent written notifications to congressional leaders that they are “unable” to discharge duties while under anesthesia, making the vice president acting president for the brief interval. George W. Bush explicitly used Section 3 in 2002 and again in 2007 for colonoscopies; other presidents (including Reagan) followed informal practices or letters that honored the amendment’s spirit even if not always formally invoked [3] [6] [4].
4. Section 4: never completed, often discussed, always controversial
Section 4 — the involuntary declaration of a president’s inability by the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet — has been contemplated publicly several times but has not resulted in a completed removal. After the January 6, 2021, attack, media and scholars reported Cabinet members considered asking Vice President Pence to invoke Section 4 and House leaders asked Pence to act; nonetheless, no Section 4 transfer of power was effectuated and available sources do not document a successful Section 4 removal [3] [7] [8]. Calls for Section 4 recur in partisan moments; commentators and think tanks urged its use in 2021 while legal scholars debated its political and constitutional risks [7] [8].
5. How many “formal invocations” does that add up to?
Counting only clear, formal actions recorded in these sources: Section 2 nominations/confirmations occurred twice (Ford and Rockefeller) and Section 3 transfers have been used multiple times for routine medical incapacities (Bush is cited using it twice) [1] [3]. Sources differ on counting every brief Section 3 letter as a distinct “invocation,” but the Library of Congress notes a list of vice presidents who served as acting president under Section 3 [4]. Section 4 has been debated publicly but not completed as a removal [3] [7]. Some secondary sources state “three times” overall; others separate procedural Section 2 uses from repeated Section 3 uses, producing differing tallies [9] [2].
6. Disagreements, ambiguities and why counts vary
Disagreement arises for three reasons: whether temporary Section 3 transfers (often minutes or hours for surgery) count as full “invocations”; whether earlier informal transfers (e.g., Reagan’s practice of notifying Congress) qualify as formal uses; and whether public calls or internal Cabinet discussions about Section 4 should be tallied as “uses.” Sources like FiveThirtyEight and the Constitution Annotated list concrete Section 2 confirmations and Section 3 acting‑president episodes separately; educational summaries sometimes collapse these into a single “times invoked” number, producing variation [2] [4] [9].
7. What this history implies about future use and politics
The 25th Amendment works as both a routine tool for planned incapacity and a high‑stakes political backstop. The Amendment has proven easy to use for scheduled medical transfers and indispensable for filling vice‑presidential vacancies; it remains politically fraught and constitutionally unsettled when used as a forced removal mechanism (Section 4). That political reality explains why calls to invoke Section 4 frequently appear in crisis moments but do not culminate in completed transfers [3] [7] [4].
Limitations: this analysis relies only on the supplied sources and does not attempt to reconcile every published tally; available sources do not mention any completed Section 4 removal, and they document the two Section 2 confirmations plus multiple Section 3 temporary transfers [1] [4] [3].