25th Amendment Simplified: What does the 25th Amendment mean in simple terms?

The 25th Amendment, proposed by Congress and ratified by the states in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, provides the procedures for replacing the president or vice president in the event of death, removal, resignation, or incapacitation.

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.

The amendment was submitted to the states on July 6, 1965, by the 89th Congress and was adopted on February 10, 1967, the day that the requisite number of states (38) had ratified it.

25th Amendment Simplified

What does the 25th Amendment mean in simple terms? The 25th Amendment clarifies that the vice president becomes president if the president dies, resigns, or is removed from office, and establishes how a vacancy in the office of the vice president can be filled.

It also provides for the temporary transfer of the president’s powers and duties to the vice president, either on the initiative of the president alone or on the initiative of the vice president together with a majority of the president’s cabinet.

In either case, the vice president becomes acting president until the presidential powers and duties are returned to the president.