What is 25th Amendment? Congressman calls to use it on Biden in a ‘stunt,’ experts say

Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican, introduced a resolution calling for Vice President Kamala Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Joe Biden from office.

The resolution, introduced Feb. 26, requests that Harris convene the Biden Administration’s 27-person Cabinet to declare him unable to fulfill his duties.

Buck, an outgoing fifth-term congressman, cited Biden’s “apparent cognitive decline and lack of mental stamina” as well as Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report, which described Biden as having a “poor memory.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the resolution, which has yet to be put for a vote.

It was roundly criticized by John Dean, who served as White House counsel under President Richard Nixon.

“Just when you think there may be a few normal Republicans, you discover they are all crazy,” Dean wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This man is leaving public office. He is the person with the cognitive problem not Joe Biden.”

What is the 25th Amendment?

Passed by Congress in 1967, the 25th Amendment concerns presidential succession in the event of disability.

It states the vice president may declare the president unfit for office and may remove the president with the a vote by the majority of the Cabinet.

This provision, provided for in Section 4 of the law, has never been invoked.

Section 3 of the amendment also allows for the president to declare him or herself unfit for office in order for the vice president to fill in.

The president may invoke Section 3 for a specific period of time, such as for a scheduled medical treatment, before reassuming the office.

President Ronald Reagan became the first president to implement Section 3, albeit informally, in 1985, when he underwent colon surgery.

It was formally invoked twice by President George W. Bush, both times for colonoscopies in 2002 and 2007.

Can Congress force the 25th Amendment to be invoked?

Despite Buck’s resolution, Congress has no power to force the amendment to be invoked, according to legal experts.

“Congress cannot legally compel the cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment,” Michael Kang, a professor at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, told McClatchy News in an email. “The resolution would be only precatory.”

“It’s not even a close question,” Laurence Tribe, an emeritus professor at Harvard Law School, told McClatchy News.

However, Congress may have a minimal role to play if the vice president and the Cabinet decide to invoke Section 4, he said via email.

If that were to happen, Congress could enact a law to replace “the principal officers of the executive departments” (i.e., the Cabinet) to serve the role otherwise played by the Cabinet in joining the Vice President,” Tribe said.

But because Congress has no right to compel the amendment’s invocation, Buck’s resolution “serves no purpose beyond that of a badly conceived publicity stunt…” Tribe said.

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