The Twenty-Fifth Amendment

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 occurrence 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 Cabinet to 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 illnesses which have occurred in our history, one can expect that the Twenty-Fifth Amendment will receive frequent application in the future of our country.