How could 25th Amendment change power in Washington?

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Lincoln Memorial University Constitutional Law Professor Stewart Harris answered questions about the 25th Amendment and how it could affect power in Washington.

• What is the purpose of the 25th Amendment?

“The purpose of the 25th Amendment is to correct a deficiency in the original Constitution, which did not deal with the question of ‘what do you do if the President is disabled?’ or if quite frankly, he goes nuts. This became a big issue in the 1950s when President Eisenhower suffered a series of heart attacks, which led him to have an informal agreement with Richard Nixon his Vice President that Nixon would take over in the event that Eisenhower died. But then, of course, the whole nation paid attention to the issue of Presidential succession after November of 1963, when JFK was assassinated. And so, a long simmering movement to amend the Constitution to fix this defect, came to fruition.”

• When was it ratified and why?

“The 25th amendment was ratified in 1967. In a nutshell, it was there to tell us what to do when the President is unable to fulfill his duties. It also tells us, by the way, what to do when the Vice President is unable to fill that job.”

• What is the process to invoke the 25th Amendment?

“Invoking the 25th Amendment depends, pretty much entirely on the Vice President of the United States. He, along with the majority of the cabinet have to vote, and they have to pass a resolution and say in writing, that the President is unable to discharge his duties, at which point the president is no longer president. But there’s a catch. The President can then certify on his own, that he is able to discharge his duties, at which point he is president again. And then everything gets thrown over to the Congress, where a supermajority has to either uphold the disability of the President; or if it doesn’t, the President remains president,

• How much time would it take from the invocation of the 25th Amendment to when it goes into effect?

“The time from the invocation of the 25th Amendment to when it goes into effect is zero. The instant that you have a majority of the cabinet plus the Vice President declaring that the President’s unfit for office, the President is no longer president. But as we have discussed, that can be reversed very quickly by the President himself, at which point it can be reversed again, only by a supermajority of Congress. So, if you want to think about how long this entire process might play out, probably the shortest time would be a period of hours.”

• In your opinion, is the 25th Amendment a plausible action before inauguration day?

“If the invocation of the 25th Amendment before Inauguration Day is completely plausible. If the Vice President decided to get the ball rolling. Today, it could be completed today. So that’s why a lot of people favor this. That’s why a lot of people are calling for it because it could happen very, very quickly. On the other hand, it takes a majority of the cabinet, all of whom were appointed by Trump. And it’s unlikely that a majority of those people would actually vote to remove him. Interestingly enough, you’ve seen a couple of cabinet officials resign just in the past couple of days. And one wonders whether they truly decided to do that because they objected to what the President’s been doing lately, or whether they simply want to avoid taking the vote on removing him from office.”

• Other possibilities?

“The President must be held accountable for his actions. Any president must be. And that’s why people are talking about the 25th Amendment now. They’re really not talking so much about the President being insane, although there are those who claim he is. they’re talking about him being unfit to fulfill his duties. And quite honestly, a more appropriate method of removal done would be impeachment. Here’s another reason that impeachment might go forward. And that is because there are two penalties if one is convicted under an impeachment proceeding. The first, of course, is removal from office. That’s the one everyone focuses on. But the second one is disqualification for holding federal office in the future. And therefore it’s possible that Trump gets impeached in the next week or so and that even though he leaves office before the trial was held in the Senate; If the Senate convicts him, even after he’s out of office, then he could theoretically be barred from running for president ever again.”

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