Ritik Gupta
In the sudden fallout of Donald Trump supporters raging the US Capitol building, which houses both the US Senate and the House of Representatives, there are buzzes by various to either impeach President Trump or invoke the 25th Amendment.
What is the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution?
This amendment describes best how a US president and vice president may be succeeded or replaced.
According to Cornell Law School, “The Twenty-fifth Amendment was an effort to resolve some of the continuing issues revolving about the office of the President; that is, what happens upon the death, removal, or resignation of the President and what is the course to follow if for some reason the President becomes disabled to such a degree that he cannot fulfill his responsibilities.”
The amendment has four sections.
As per the Encyclopedia Britannica, while the first section codified the traditionally identified procedure of progression in the circumstance of the death of the president—that the vice president would accomplish to the office—it moreover inaugurated a transformation respecting the rise of the vice president to president should the latter resign from office.
“In the event of resignation, the vice president would assume the title and position of president—not acting president—effectively prohibiting the departing president from returning to office,” states Britannica.
The second section of the amendment deals with opportunities in the office of the vice president.
The third section of the amendment set forth the established procedure for deducing the president’s capacity to release the powers and duties of the office.
If the president can announce his/her inability, the vice president takes over as the acting president.
In case the president is not able to announce his/her incompetence, the fourth section of the amendment instructs the vice president and the cabinet to ascertain this together. If they do so, then the vice president instantly determines the position of acting president.
It is this fourth section of the 25th Amendment that several are inquiring of Vice President Pence to summon against President Trump.
2.When was it inaugurated, and has it been wielded in history?
In the outcome of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the 25th Amendment was recommended by Congress on July 6, 1965, and upheld by the states on February 10, 1967.
As per the Cornell Law School, “The Watergate scandal of the 1970s saw the application of these procedures, first when Gerald Ford replaced Spiro Agnew as Vice President, then when he replaced Richard Nixon as President, and then when Nelson Rockefeller filled the resulting vacancy to become the Vice President.”
Nevertheless, the fourth section of the 25th Amendment has never been summoned.
3.Why did Donald Trump supporters storm the Capitol?
Trump has repeatedly affirmed, although without any credible proof, that the presidential election in November, in which he relinquished to Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden, was outfitted.
He has been persuading his backers to render their voices heard as parts of the US Congress got together to confirm the counting of Electoral College votes and formally pave the means for Joe Biden to commandeer on January 20th.
