About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


1 1 (March 28, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goveouf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional_______ .Research Service The Twenty-Fifth Amendment and Presidential Inability, Part 4: Early Congressional Action March 28, 2024 This Legal Sidebar post is the fourth in a seven-part series that discusses the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. In an effort to ensure that the United States will always possess a functioning President and Vice President, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment seeks to promote the prompt, orderly, and democratic transfer of executive power. In particular, the Amendment establishes procedures for addressing presidential inability and vacancies that arise in the presidency or vice presidency. Because Congress may play a role in implementing the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, understanding the Amendment's history and drafting may assist Congress in its legislative activities. This Sidebar post discusses early congressional action with respect to the issues of presidential inability and succession. Other Sidebars in this series discuss the Twenty-Fifth Amendment's procedures; the framing of the Presidential Succession Clause at the Constitutional Convention of 1787; the history of presidential succession; and the Amendment's drafting in Congress, implementation, and unresolved issues. Additional information on this topic is available at the Constitution Annotated: Analysis and Interpretation of the U.S. Constitution and in several CRS reports. Early Congressional Action For more than a century before the Twenty-Fifth Amendment's ratification, Members of Congress periodically raised concerns about ambiguities in the Constitution's Presidential Succession Clause. Congressional action on presidential inability acquired new urgency after President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in 1955. Representative Emanuel Celler of New York, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, held hearings in the House and Senate, respectively, on legislation to address presidential inability. The hearings explored several issues, including (1) how, if at all, to define presidential inability; (2) who should initiate the transfer of an incapacitated President's powers and duties to an Acting President; (3) who should determine presidential inability and its termination; and (4) whether an amendment to the Constitution on the subject was necessary or desirable. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB11134 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress