A Flawed Proposal for Presidential Disability

Andy CraigSpeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, together with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), held a press conference on Friday to introduce a bill to create a new body with an unwieldy name: the Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office. Widely perceived as a largely symbolic action to highlight President Trump ’s muddled handling of his recent COVID-19 diagnosis, this bill would invoke Congress’s power under the Twenty‐​fifth Amendment. In spite of the obvious timing, Pelosi insisted this bill is not about the current president. Raskin has proposed similar legislation earlier in Trump’s term, an d the idea has come up sporadically over the decades. President Trump ’s fitness and immediate politics aside, is this bill a good idea? First, it ’s important to understand the mechanics of the Twenty‐​fifth Amendment. Among other provisions, this amendment—passed in the wake of the Kennedy assassination and previous presidential health crises—allows the president to temporarily transfer power to the vice president, correcting a dangerous oversight in the original Constitution. This provision, in Section 3 of the amendment, has been invoked on occasion when presidents underwent medical procedures requiring sedation. Section 4 is designed to handle the possibility of a president who is incapacitated before he or she is able to voluntarily transfer power. This requires invocation by the v...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs