The Twenty-fifth Amendment

by Feerick, John D.

• ISBN13: 9780823213733
• ISBN10: 0823213730
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-03-01
• Publisher: Fordham Univ Pr

Summary

This book focuses on the Twenty-Fifth Amendment - its meaning, legislative history, and applications. The Amendment has been criticized for being vague and undemocratic. It has been praised for making possible swift and orderly successions to the presidency and vice presidency upon the occurence of some of the most extraordinary events in American history. Its vice presidential selection feature has been recommended as the best method for selecting all Vice Presidents. The repeal of that feature and the abolition of the vice presidency have also been suggested. Moreover, throughout the Watergate crisis the Amendment was alluded to as affording a means by which a President could transfer Presidential power during an impeachment proceeding, and it was suggested as authorizing a Vice President and Cabinetto suspend, so to speak, a President during the period of impeachment trial before the Senate. Judging by all the attention the Amendment has received and by the number of presidential and vice presidential vacancies and illness which have occurred in our history, one can expect that the Twenty-Fifth Amendment will receive frequent application in the future of our country.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the 1992 Edition
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Preface
The Problems
Presidential Inability	p. 3
Vice Presidential Vacancy	p. 27
Succession Beyond the Vice Presidency	p. 35
The Solution
Early Steps to Solve the Inability Problem	p. 51
Senate Passage of S. J. Res. 139	p. 59
Congress Acts	p. 83
Ratification	p. 111
First Implementations of the Solution
The Resignation of Spiro T. Agnew	p. 117
The Substitution of Gerald R. Ford	p. 129
The Resignation of Richard M. Nixon and Succession of Gerald R. Ford	p. 153
The Installation of Nelson A. Rockefeller	p. 163
An Evaluation
An Analysis of Sections 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the Amendment	p. 193
An Appraisal	p. 213
Recommendations	p. 233
App. A: Section-by-Section Development of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment	p. 243
App. B: Constitutional Provisions on Succession	p. 248
App. C: Statutory Succession Laws	p. 251
App. D: Presidential Vacancies	p. 254
Vice Presidential Vacancies	p. 255
App. E: Times During Which the Speaker, the President pro tempore, or Both Were from a Party Different from the President's	p. 256
App. F: Republican Party Procedure	p. 258
App. G: Democratic Party Procedure	p. 259
Bibliography	p. 261
Index	p. 269
About the Author	p. 275
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