50 years ago this week, Richard Nixon resigned as presidentand maybe it didn’t happen. At least, when it did. 25th Amendment And then there was the vice presidential transition procedure, which allowed Nixon to appoint Republican Gerald Ford to the vice presidential post that had been vacant eight months earlier, ensuring that if Nixon resigned, Ford would take over the White House rather than the Democratic Speaker of the House, who would have been his next successor.
The possibility of a change in party control may have influenced Nixon’s decision to resign. It may also have altered the public’s perception of Nixon and Republicans who rebelled against him following revelations of his connections to the Watergate break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters. With the vice presidency vacant, even many Democrats in Congress were hesitant to pursue Nixon’s removal from office, concerned about the appearance of seizing the White House. At the very least, the assurance that party control would remain unchanged helped minimize confusion and division during a time of national turmoil.
The role of the 25th Amendment in overcoming Watergate and ensuring a smooth transition of power is often overlooked. Enacted in response to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the amendment was ratified just six years before President Nixon used it to nominate Ford. A major motivation for drafting the amendment was the need for a procedure to declare presidential incapacity. However, Ford’s appointment marked the first and most significant use of the amendment.
The story of the amendment’s use at that time is more than just a historical footnote. The actions of lawmakers in considering Ford’s nomination are an example of putting the national interest above partisanship. The patriotism they demonstrated is what makes the 25th Amendment and other provisions of the Constitution work.
If Congress had put politics first, Ford would never have been able to succeed Nixon. The procedure for vice presidential succession, as set out in Section 2 of the 25th Amendment, requires the approval of a majority of both houses of Congress. When Nixon nominated Ford to fill the vice presidential vacancy, 1973: Spiro Agnew resigns after a bribery scandalDemocrats controlled Congress at the time, but they did not use their power to block Ford’s nomination. Even if they had done so, it would have allowed House Speaker Carl Albert (D-Okla.), the Democratic congressman and runner-up to the president, to remain in office.
The stakes were clear. Even before Nixon nominated Ford, 30-year-old Senator Joseph R. Biden (D-Delaware) had said, “The man we are about to confirm as Vice President of the United States is likely to become the next President within the next three years.” That possibility quickly grew. Within two weeks of the nomination, Nixon fired the special prosecutor investigating Watergate.. Saturday Night Massacre Calls for his impeachment or resignation grew.
Still, lawmakers remained faithful to the spirit of the 25th Amendment. Built on assumptions Government officials will act in good faith and with “constitutional morality.” The same is true of the 25th Amendment process for declaring a president incapacitated, which has become embroiled in partisan fighting in recent years.
A parliamentary committee report issued during the development of the 25th Amendment stated that, ‘assuming a hypothetical case in which most of the parties involved are rogue and there is no public perception of constitutional propriety, no mechanical or procedural solution can provide a complete answer.’ The amendment’s procedures were based on the belief that ‘reasonable’ people would always be found at the ‘highest levels of government’.
During Ford’s nomination process, lawmakers sought guidance from Senator Birch Bayh (D-Indiana), a key author of the 25th Amendment. Bayh testified that honesty, integrity, and the ability to “work in harmony with the president” were crucial qualities for a vice presidential candidate. It didn’t matter whether lawmakers agreed with the candidate’s policy views, Bayh said.
This approach was supported by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino (D-Jersey), who would oversee the Nixon impeachment inquiry the following year. At the beginning of Ford’s confirmation hearing, Chairman Rodino said, “I hope this hearing will inspire renewed confidence in our nation’s fundamental decency and our ability to meet challenges to the integrity of our government.”
Albert, who had been president-elect while the vice presidency was vacant, supported Ford’s quick confirmation because he thought it was inappropriate for partisan control of the White House to change. Indications Albert considered resigning as Speaker of the House to allow the House to elect House Minority Leader Gary Ford as the next president.
Two months after his nomination, both houses of Congress approved Ford by wide margins. In the Senate, the vote was 92-3. and In the House, 387 to 35Ford was sworn in as vice president on December 8, 1973. “For the first time, we have carried out the mandate of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Ford said after his confirmation. “We have shown the world that our great republic stands firmly on the foundations of our Constitution.”
Less than a year later, in August 1974, upon President Nixon’s resignation, Ford became president under Section 1 of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Ford then nominated New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to fill the vice presidential vacancy under Section 2.
After taking the oath of office, Ford declared, “Our Constitution is working.” He was right, but only because the constitutional process was operating as designed. Partisanship is inherent to the operation of government and is not necessarily a bad thing. But sometimes politics must be set aside, as the 25th Amendment emphasized during the Watergate era.
John Feerick is a former dean of Fordham Law School who played a key role in drafting the 25th Amendment, and John Logan is a senior fellow at Fordham Law School.
