Presidential Inability Before the Twenty-Fifth Amendment’s Ratification

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Prior to the Twenty-Fifth Amendment’s ratification, several Presidents became incapacitated for more than a few days while leading the nation.1 These include James Madison, who “suffered from a severe fever in the summer of 1813” ; James Garfield, who survived for 80 days after an assassin shot him; Woodrow Wilson, who suffered a stroke and was incapacitated for a significant part of his second term; and Dwight Eisenhower, who “suffered three major illnesses while in office.” 2 During these episodes of presidential inability, the Constitution lacked a clear mechanism by which the Vice President could declare the President disabled.3 Moreover, some commentators argued that if the Vice President assumed the President’s powers and duties, then the President could not legally resume them upon recovery.4

Significant uncertainty over the Presidential Succession Clause’s operation surfaced in 1881 when President James Garfield was shot by an assassin but survived for 80 days before dying.5

James Garfield Assassination: Topics in Chronicling America

, Libr. of Cong., https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-james-garfield-assassination. Although many important national issues required attention during Garfield’s inability, Vice President Chester Arthur declined to assume the presidency before Garfield’s death in part because he and a majority of the Cabinet believed that such an action would permanently oust Garfield.6 For similar reasons, after President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919, Vice President Thomas Marshall refused to declare Wilson disabled and assume the powers and duties of the presidency.7 Instead, important national business went unaddressed.8 Wilson’s wife, physician, and private secretary reportedly limited officials’ access to the President during his illness, which was hidden from the public and lasted for many months of his second term.9

Beginning in the 1950s, some presidents developed public, informal protocols for addressing presidential inability. For example, in 1958, citing Article II’s Presidential Succession Clause, President Eisenhower and then-Vice President Richard Nixon agreed to procedures for temporarily transferring Eisenhower’s presidential powers to Nixon if Eisenhower became disabled as a result of ongoing health issues.10

Agreement Between the President and the Vice President as to Procedures in the Event of Presidential Disability

, Am. Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/agreement-between-the-president-and-the-vice-president-procedures-the-event-presidential. These procedures allowed the President to transfer his power voluntarily.11 However, if the President were unable to communicate with the Vice President, then the Vice President could assume the President’s powers and duties as Acting President “after such consultation as seem[ed] to him appropriate under the circumstances.” 12 In either event, the President could resume his powers and duties at any time when he determined that he was able to do so.13 Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson reached similar agreements with their potential successors before the Twenty-Fifth Amendment’s ratification.14

Questions about the legality and workability of such informal agreements prompted significant congressional interest in establishing formal procedures to address presidential inability.15 President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination added urgency to these efforts, helping to motivate the Twenty-Fifth Amendment’s proposal and ratification in the 1960s.16

1: Presidential Succession and Delegation in Case of Disability, 5 Op. O.L.C. 91, 100–03 (1981) (citations omitted) (collecting examples of presidential inability).
2: Id. Several Presidents have become briefly incapacitated while undergoing medical procedures. See id.
3: See S. Rep. No. 89-66, at 5–6 (1965).
4: See id. The original Presidential Succession Clause provided, in relevant part, that “[i]n Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President . . . ” U.S. Const. art. II, § 1, cl. 6 (emphasis added). President John Tyler had established, as a matter of historical precedent, that the full office of the President, rather than only the President’s “powers and duties,” would devolve upon the Vice President in the event of the President’s death. See “Presidential and Vice-Presidential Vacancies Before the Twenty-Fifth Amendment’s Ratification.” Some Members of Congress and commentators thus believed that the full office of the President might also devolve upon the Vice President in the event of presidential inability. See, e.g., Cong. Globe, 27th Cong., 1st Sess., 4–5 (1841).
5: James Garfield Assassination: Topics in Chronicling America
, Libr. of Cong., https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-james-garfield-assassination.
6: S. Rep. No. 88-1382, at 5 (1964); 111 Cong. Rec. 3254 (1965) (statement of Sen. Bayh). See also Chester A. Arthur,
First Annual Message
, Am. Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/first-annual-message-13 (posing a series of questions about Article II’s Presidential Succession Clause).
7: See 111 Cong. Rec. 3250–51, 3254 (1965) (statements of Sen. Bayh) (discussing President Wilson’s disability).
8: S. Rep. No. 88-1382, at 5 (1964); John D. Feerick, The Proposed Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, 34 Fordham L. Rev. 173, 177 (1965) ( “As a result of the absence of presidential leadership by Wilson or a legitimate Acting President, United States participation in the League of Nations was defeated in the Senate, numerous governmental vacancies went unfilled, twenty-eight bills became law by default of any action by the President, foreign diplomats were unable to submit their credentials to the President as required, and, in many other respects, the operation of government was suspended.” ).
9: See sources cited supra notes 7-8. After recovering, President Wilson dismissed Secretary of State Robert Lansing for encouraging Vice President Marshall to serve as Acting President and for calling Cabinet meetings to address some executive branch business in Wilson’s absence. See sources cited supra notes 7-8.
10: Agreement Between the President and the Vice President as to Procedures in the Event of Presidential Disability
, Am. Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/agreement-between-the-president-and-the-vice-president-procedures-the-event-presidential.
11: Id.
12: Id.
13: Id.
14: See, e.g., White House Statement and Text of Agreement Between the President and the Vice President on Procedures in the Event of Presidential Inability (Aug. 10, 1961), Am. Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/white-house-statement-and-text-agreement-between-the-president-and-the-vice-president; Lyndon B. Johnson-John W. McCormack Letter Agreement (Dec. 23, 1963), Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship & History, https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=twentyfifth_amendment_executive_materials.
15: See S. Rep. No. 88-1382, at 5–6, 9 (1964); 110 Cong. Rec. 22987 (1964) (statement of Sen. Bayh).
16: See sources cited supra note 15.