The Right Stuff: 25th Amendment a solution for lost leadership

By Earl Heal: published June 27, 2022

The Right Stuff column of June 20 examined actions of the Biden administration that violated constitutional law.

Procedure to remove the president from office requires House members, acting as a grand jury, to investigate a president’s actions to determine if causes for impeachment exist. If affirmative, the House will issue a Cause for Impeachment (indictment) to the Senate, which then is required to conduct a trial to determine conviction. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote.

An alternative to impeachment is provided by the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1967.

The original Constitution did not address various circumstances that would require filling a presidential vacancy. Before 1967, eight vice presidents replaced presidents who died in office. Two other cases illustrated the deficiency of guidance in place. President Woodrow Wilson was stricken by a stroke in October 1919 that left him paralyzed with limited speech. Wilson’s condition was hidden from the public, White House staff and Congress. Historian Dr. Howard Markel and others identified that Mrs. Wilson worked secretly as the nation’s chief executive officer, America’s first women president, through March 2021. After Lyndon B. Johnson replaced assassinated President John F. Kennedy, the nation had no vice president for 16 months until the next election’s inauguration.[.read more...]