25th Amendment and Impeachment, What?

What is the 25th Amendment? What does it mean to Impeach the President?

The aftermath of the Wednesday, January 6, 2021 incidents when Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol building raised a lot of questions over the President’s ability to perform his job as the head of state. ( there was a question about it before, but this was the last straw). There were calls by many Americans to either invoke the 25th Amendment or impeach the former president. What then is the Twenty-fifth Amendment and what does it mean to impeach a sitting President? Is it still important that it still takes place?

The Twenty-Fifth amendment lays out the basic procedures on how a US president and/or vice president may be replaced. In its section 1 it states that “In case of the removal of the president from office, death, or resignation, the vice president shall become the President.” This section seems to codify the traditional process of the president’s succession while also introducing a change in the ascent of the vice president should the sitting president resign. Once the VP assumes the title and position of the president, he or she effectively prohibits the departing president from the office.

Section 2 of the twenty-fifth amendment address vacancies. In the office of the vice president, in which case, the president has the power to nominate a vice president to assume the office upon confirmation by majority votes by both houses.

Section 3, therefore applies to suppose the president declares his/her inability to discharge his/her duties through a written declaration to the senate and the Speaker of the House, such duties and powers will be assumed by the Vice President. However, his inability to declare his incompetence prompts the application of section 4 that allows the Vice President and cabinet to jointly ascertain this process. The Vice president, therefore, assumes the position of acting president.

The Twenty-Fifth Amendment came in as a major step in resolving some of the continuing dilemmas and issues that revolve around the office of the President, majorly, the procedures that follow upon death, removal, or resignation of the US President.

Removal by impeachment is yet another process. The United States’ Constitution allows Congress to remove the United States in two proceedings; a simple majority vote in the House of Representatives and an impeachment trial in the Senate. Therefore, the conviction of the articles of impeachment by a two-thirds majority vote results in the removal of a sitting president from office and a further possible debarment from holding future office.

So far, three United States Presidents have been impeached but all were not convicted; Those were, Andrew Johnson (1868), Bill Clinton (1998), and Donald Trump (2019 and 2021). Trump will be facing his second impeachment; the first impeachment was based on allegations of abuse of power by pressuring a foreign government to investigate his political rival ahead of the 2020 election and obstruction of congress by ordering officials to refuse to testify towards a directive issued by the House. The second impeachment was after he was accused of incitement of a deadly insurrection against the United States while in office. His trial is scheduled to start on February 9, 2021.

Members of the House consider whether to impeach the president — the equivalent of an indictment in a criminal case — and members of the Senate consider whether to remove him, holding a trial in which senators act as the jury. The test, as set by the Constitution, is whether the president has committed “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The House vote requires only a simple majority of lawmakers to agree that the president has, in fact, committed high crimes and misdemeanors; the Senate vote requires a two-thirds majority.

I will say, the last two years of the recent past administration, we saw many things we can agree just did not feel right, the excess use of power, manipulation of information and media.

Many people want to see that the justice system works for everyone, no exception and that no one is above the law. Many want to be sure someone who is doubted to be fit for office, is ever able to do it once again. This is why I believe it is never too late, and it is very necessary.