Column on 25th Amendment

I’m playing around with the idea of writing a novel on the 25^th Amendment. Already, eyelids are growing heavy. Bear with me for a few moments. This is the 50^th anniversary of its ratification by the states.

When I was a child the President was incapacitated by a heart attack for a while, but we were not clear on the powers of the office devolving to the Vice President. After the horror of Dallas, Vice President Johnson had the oath of office on a plane, with JFK’s widow there in her blood spattered outfit.  When President Reagan was shot, the Secretary of State was confused about power being handed over, and the staff had the President scrawl his signature to show he was capable. Bill O’Reilly, in his series of books, alleges; I repeat alleges, that the president’s capacities went downhill after that.

The 25^th Amendment spells out emergency presidential succession of power. The TV show The West Wing has the president cede power when he feels incapable of handling the office when his daughter is kidnapped. That is under its terms, and should be used in real life when the president may have to undergo surgery.

Later its provisions get more involved. What if the president should divest power of office, but is unwilling to do so? Here is section 4 of the text: “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. “ 

Now this could get interesting. I can easily imagine a president going through the rigors of recovery from serious surgery and needing help on a temporary basis. I can also easily imagine a president slipping into dementia and be mentally incapacitated in emergency situations. Congress could create a body to examine presidential fitness. Let your mind wonder and wander about those who would fill this task force and why they would be asked to serve.

What if the president want to return to the duties of the office/ The amendment continues: “Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide …

I am not a particularly imaginative person, but it takes little to be able to conjure a vision of competing doctor’s opinions, or the release of tests by psychiatric evaluators. One could easily imagine an ambitious vice president searching for a way to gain the highest office in the land. One could even imagine a conspiracy between the Cabinet officers, the vice President and the leaders of both houses of Congress to remove the president, for cause, or not.

I continue to be impressed with Indiana Senator Birch Bayh’s prescience in trying to draft and pass an amendment that tried to peer into the future to cover a number of exigencies. Since the advent of the nuclear age, we have invested the office with enormous power. I am so proud of our governmental system   that we looked forward and tried to prevent the evil of succession chaos or free-floating power to be allowed to persist, in the event of presidential disability.