The Twenty-fifth Amendment has been used six times since its ratification in 1967. Two of those uses filled vacancies in the vice presidency, and four were temporary transfers of presidential power during medical procedures. The involuntary removal process in Section 4 has never been invoked, though it came close once. The real-world 25th Amendment examples below show how each part of the amendment works in practice, and where its limits remain untested.
The Four Sections at a Glance
The amendment splits into four parts, and every use in American history has involved one of them. Section 1 confirms that a vice president becomes president (not merely acting president) when the office falls vacant. Section 2 sets the process for filling a vacant vice presidency by nomination and congressional confirmation. Section 3 allows a president to voluntarily hand power to the vice president in writing. Section 4 lets the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet declare a sitting president unable to serve. The examples cluster around Sections 2 and 3.
Section 2: Filling a Vacant Vice Presidency
Before 1967, a vice presidential vacancy simply stayed open until the next election, and the office sat empty sixteen times over the nation’s history. Section 2 changed that by letting the president nominate a replacement, subject to majority confirmation in both chambers of Congress. It has been used twice, back-to-back, during the Watergate era.
Gerald Ford, 1973
Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned on October 10, 1973, after federal prosecutors uncovered evidence of corruption. President Nixon nominated Gerald Ford, then the House Minority Leader. The Senate confirmed Ford 92 to 3, and the House followed nine days later, 387 to 35. Ford became vice president without ever appearing on a national ballot.
Nelson Rockefeller, 1974
Less than a year later, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974, and Ford moved into the Oval Office. The vice presidency was vacant again. Ford nominated Nelson Rockefeller, the former governor of New York. Confirmation took considerably longer than Ford’s. Congressional committees held extensive hearings, and the FBI conducted a deep background investigation into Rockefeller’s finances. He was sworn in on December 19, 1974. Ford and Rockefeller remain the only vice presidents in American history who reached the office through appointment rather than election.
Section 3: Voluntary Transfers of Power
Section 3 lets a president temporarily transfer authority by sending a written notice to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate. The vice president becomes acting president until the president sends a second letter reclaiming power. Reclamation is immediate and cannot be challenged. Four presidents have used the section, all during medical procedures involving sedation.
Ronald Reagan, 1985
In July 1985, Reagan needed surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his colon. He sent a letter to Congress transferring his powers to Vice President George H.W. Bush. The wrinkle: Reagan’s letter deliberately avoided citing the Twenty-fifth Amendment by name. His aides wanted to follow the amendment’s procedures without formally invoking Section 3, worried about setting a precedent that future presidents would feel bound to follow for even minor procedures. The White House publicly stated the letter did not constitute a formal invocation. Legal scholars have debated this ever since, though the practical effect was identical. Bush held presidential authority for roughly eight hours until Reagan sent a second letter reclaiming power after recovering from anesthesia.
George W. Bush, 2002 and 2007
Bush used Section 3 twice, both times for routine colonoscopies requiring sedation, and both times without the ambiguity that surrounded Reagan’s transfer. On June 29, 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney served as acting president from 7:09 a.m. to 9:24 a.m. On July 21, 2007, Cheney held the role again from 7:16 a.m. to 9:21 a.m. Each transfer lasted barely two hours. Bush explicitly invoked Section 3 in his letters, establishing the precedent Reagan had tried to avoid: that even brief, low-risk medical sedation warrants a formal power transfer.
Joe Biden, 2021
On November 19, 2021, Biden underwent a colonoscopy as part of a routine physical. He sent letters to Senator Patrick Leahy (then President pro tempore) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, formally invoking Section 3. Vice President Kamala Harris served as acting president for one hour and twenty-five minutes, becoming the first woman to hold presidential power in American history. Biden reclaimed authority by sending his second letter immediately after the procedure.
Section 4: The Involuntary Removal That Has Never Happened
Section 4 addresses the hardest scenario. A president who is unable to do the job but won’t or can’t voluntarily step aside can be sidelined by the vice president acting together with a majority of the “principal officers of the executive departments,” meaning the heads of the fifteen Cabinet departments. They jointly send a written declaration to Congress, and the vice president immediately becomes acting president. No president has ever been removed this way. The provision came closest to activation in 1981.
The 1981 Near-Miss
When Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981, his Cabinet faced exactly the crisis Section 4 was designed for. Half the Cabinet gathered in the White House Situation Room while the other half set up a command post at the hospital. They discussed invoking the amendment while Reagan was in surgery, unable to communicate. Secretary of State Alexander Haig complicated matters by announcing to the press, “I’m in control here,” misstating the line of succession in the process. After considerable debate, the Cabinet decided not to invoke Section 4, and Reagan regained consciousness that evening. The episode exposed how difficult the decision is in real time, even with clear constitutional authority to act.
Contested Removal and the High Bar Congress Set
Section 4 also lays out what happens if a president disputes being declared unable to serve. The president sends Congress a letter stating no inability exists. The vice president and Cabinet then have four days to push back with a second declaration. If they don’t respond within that window, the president automatically gets power back.
If they do push back, Congress must assemble within forty-eight hours (if not already in session) and has twenty-one days to settle the dispute. Keeping the president out of power requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate. Anything short of that supermajority, and the president resumes authority. The framers of the amendment set this bar high on purpose. They wanted Section 4 to handle a genuine medical crisis without becoming a political tool to sideline an unpopular president. Because no Cabinet has ever signed the initial declaration, none of these deadlines or vote thresholds has been tested.
What the Examples Show
The pattern across six uses is narrow. Section 2 has functioned twice, both during a single constitutional crisis. Section 3 has become routine for scheduled medical sedation, with transfers lasting anywhere from about ninety minutes to eight hours. Section 4 remains dormant, and its hardest questions (who exactly counts as a principal officer, how a twenty-one-day standoff would actually play out) have never had to be answered. The amendment’s track record is one of orderly, voluntary use. Its involuntary machinery has stayed on the shelf.