Part II History: Fact and Fiction, 6 Presidential Inability Since 1967

Unable ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalt Brian C
Keyword(s):  
Vice President ◽  
Fifth Amendment ◽  
President Bush

Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment has never been used, though it should have been used when President Reagan was shot and nearly killed in 1981. He was unconscious for hours and incapacitated for days, but his administration decided not to transfer power to Vice President Bush. Several years later, Reagan’s staff considered Section 4 more seriously, due to concerns about the President’s performance. They decided against it. Reagan did, however, invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment’s less exciting Section 3 prior to a planned surgery, setting a precedent followed by President George W. Bush on two occasions.

Vice-presidential behavior in a disability crisis: The case of Thomas R. Marshall

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel K. Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Fifth Amendment ◽  
Woodrow Wilson ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Inhibiting Factors ◽  
Constitutional System ◽  
The Impact

Vice President Thomas R. Marshall has been criticized for not acting more aggressively to exercise presidential powers and duties after President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in October 1919 which compromised his ability to discharge his office for much of the remainder of his term. Yet Marshall faced formidable constraints in the constitutional, political, institutional, and factual context in which he operated. This paper examines these constraints on Marshall's political behavior. His conduct becomes understandable when viewed in the context of those inhibiting factors. The paper also considers the impact of the presidential inability provisions of the subsequently ratified Twenty-Fifth Amendment which renowned Wilson scholar Arthur Link suggested would have made no difference. While questioning the practicality of that counter-factual, the paper argues that the Amendment would have been helpful but suggests that a Wilson-like situation, if one could be imagined in modern times, could present a relatively taxing challenge to our constitutional system.

Part I How Section 4 Works, 1 Section 4 Basics

Unable ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalt Brian C
Keyword(s):  
Vice President ◽  
Fifth Amendment ◽  
Time Limits ◽  
Bullet Point ◽  
Point Form

The text of Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment is dense and requires careful unpacking. Section 4 allows a president to be displaced from power if the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet declare that he is unable to discharge his powers and duties. The text then provides for the President to return to power. If the Vice President and Cabinet oppose his attempt, Congress is empowered to resolve any disputes. All of this is subject to specific procedural requirements and time limits. This chapter presents all of these details in both bullet-point form and with a comprehensive flowchart.

Presidential Disability: Past Experiences and Future Implications

1988 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bert E. Park
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Public Welfare ◽  
Fifth Amendment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Legal Discovery ◽  
Do So

In 1967 Congress passed the Twenty-fifth Amendment to rectify an apparent inadequacy in the U. S. Constitution dealing with one of the gravest dangers to executive function–disability in the presidency. For 180 years, imprecise wording had bound the public welfare beneath a constitutional sword of Damocles which threatened to sever the legal discovery of inability in our Chief Executive from its occurrence. On at least four occasions during the last 100 years alone, executive function has been paralyzed by medically defined presidential inability, while two perplexing questions restricted a satisfactory resolution to the problem. First, in such a circumstance, does the office of the presidency devolve to the vice-president, or does the vicepresident merely serve as an acting president, assuming only its powers and duties? Second, who shall determine when the president is disabled and, its corollary, when that disability has ended? In the first instance, the amendment's sponsors ultimately determined that the vice-president assumes the powers and duties, but not the office itself, when the president becomes disabled. In the second, the sponsors proposed that the vice-president and the cabinet are jointly responsible for determining the duration of inability when, for medical or other reasons, the president is unable to do so.

scholarly journals CALON PRESIDEN PERSEORANGAN SEBAGAI PERWUJUDAN ASPIRASI RAKYAT PADA PROSES DEMOKRATISASI DI INDONESIA

2017 ◽  
pp. 95-108
Author(s):  
Parlindungan Sitorus
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
Vice President ◽  
General Election ◽  
Fifth Amendment ◽  
The People ◽  
Individual Candidate ◽  
The Republic

AbstractPolitical discourse that is being discussed today is Provincial Assembly of the Republic ofIndonesia proposes the fifth amendment of Contitution 1945 that candidates of Presidentand Vice President can be from individual candidate; by offering amendment of paragraph6A article (2) Constitution 1945 to become “Candidate of President and Vice Presidentcome from the proposal of political party of general election participant or from individual”.This discourse actually based on idea to realize democratization in the practice ofpresidential election; that sovereignty is on the people’s hand and to provide the maximumspace for the people who has capability to lead this great nation; and basically all people isequal in front of Law and Governance. Provincial Assembly believes that that proposal iscompatible with democracy principle that related to recognition on people’s right to electand to be elected even without having any political party.Keywords: Individual candidate, People aspiration, Democratization, “Deparpolisasi”

Partial Détente

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Minchin
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Bush Administration ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Labor Disputes ◽  
Moderate Improvement ◽  
Working People ◽  
President Bush ◽  
Positive Light

This chapter examines the AFL-CIO’s history during the presidency of George H.W. Bush (1989-1993). Overall, the Bush era was a moderate improvement for the AFL-CIO, and for American working people. During Reagan’s presidency, vice-president Bush had forged a workable relationship with the AFL-CIO, and the Federation’s leaders viewed him in a more positive light. Bush was not as hostile to labor as Reagan, and – helped by the improved economy – organizing picked up, there were some defensive victories in labor disputes, and the AFL-CIO also found common ground with the Bush administration in foreign affairs. As one AFL-CIO staffer put it, these years were characterized by a partial détente. Ultimately, however, there was no fundamental turnaround in labor’s fortunes.

Presidential Succession Effects in Voting

1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franco Mattei ◽  
Herbert F. Weisberg
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Vice President ◽  
General Election ◽  
Retrospective Voting ◽  
Indirect Impact ◽  
Presidential Succession ◽  
President Bush

Attitudes towards a departing administration can help shape attitudes towards candidates, especially when the incumbent vice-president is one of the candidates. This succession effect was apparent in the 1988 presidential election, when Vice-President Bush benefited from the enduring popularity of retiring President Reagan. This article develops a model in which succession effects, the net candidate score and party identification affect the general election vote. Analysis shows that this effect remains when controls are instituted for retrospective voting more generally. Attitudes towards Reagan also had an indirect impact by affecting the net Bush-Dukakis candidate score; altogether the estimated impact of the Reagan effect in 1988 was to turn the vice-president's predicted loss into his observed victory. Additionally, a succession effect was detected in the 1988 nominating campaign, with Bush's popularity over Dole benefiting from reactions to the Reagan administration. There is evidence of succession effects in other presidential elections, particularly a Johnson effect in 1968.

scholarly journals PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-103
Author(s):  
John Brademas
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Executive Order ◽  
General Accounting Office ◽  
President Bush

Allow me to observe that the Executive Order of President Bush of November 1, 2001, blocking access to the records of Presidents Reagan and the first President Bush, in circumvention of the requirements of the Presidential Records Act of 1978; the dispute concerning the papers of Mayor Giuliani of New York; the suit by the General Accounting Office against Vice President Cheney because of his refusal to provide names of the persons who took part in his secret Energy Task Force meetings; and the controversy over the decision by Governor Bush of Texas to send his records as governor not . . .

Two Election and Removal of the President

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fisher Louis
Keyword(s):  
Vice President ◽  
Fifth Amendment

This chapter discusses the constitutional provisions for choosing the president by electors; eligibility to the Office of President; the number of terms a President could serve; compensation and emoluments; the President's oath; disability and death; the Twenty-Fifth Amendment; the Vice President; impeachment and censure; and executive immunity.

Presidential inability: Filling in the gaps

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-36
Author(s):  
John D. Feerick
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Vice President ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Fifth Amendment ◽  
Constitutional Convention ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
Presidential Succession

This article focuses on potential gaps caused by the absence from the Twenty-Fifth Amendment of provisions to deal with the disability of a Vice President and the omission from the statutory line of succession law of provisions comparable to Sections 3 and 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment for when there is an able Vice President. The analysis offers a critical review of the latent ambiguities in the succession provision to the United States Constitution, noting problems that have arisen from the time of the Constitutional Convention, to John Tyler's accession to office, to numerous disability crises that presented themselves throughout the twentieth century, to the present day. As the world becomes more complex and threats to the presidency more common, continued examination of our succession structure and its adequacy for establishing clear and effective presidential succession provisions under a broad range of circumstances is of paramount concern. This article embraces this robust discussion by offering some suggestions for improving the system in a way that does not require a constitutional amendment. The first part of the analysis traces the events that have driven the development of the nation's succession procedures. The second part examines the inadequacies, or “gaps,” that remain in the area of presidential inability, and the third part sets forth recommendations for resolving these gaps.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document