Suchergebnisse

As with so many aspects of the vice presidency, questions involving incapacity in the office have been largely neglected by scholars. While discussion of historical episodes involving disability has been undertaken regarding presidents, members of Congress, and federal judges, no such work has been done regarding vice presidents. Given the indispensable role the vice president plays in the continuity of the executive branch under the Twenty‐Fifth Amendment and the important advisory and troubleshooting duties the modern vice president carries out, a discussion of the history of vice presidential incapacity is long overdue. Such an examination reveals that vice presidential inability is not a hypothetical but a real issue.

If a vice president dies, resigns, is removed, or his position is otherwise vacated, and if Congress is out of session, does the president have the authority to fill the vacancy through a recess appointment, or is his only means of installing a new vice president through the bicameral confirmation process under the Twenty‐Fifth Amendment? This article evaluates this novel constitutional question, which is important in light of the vice presidency's increased prominence in recent years, the expansion of presidential recess appointment power over the course of the nation's history, and the greater frequency with which presidents have carried out these unilateral actions in past decades. While arguments in favor of the president cannot be dismissed out of hand, ultimately it must be concluded that he lacks such power.