The Law: Vice Presidential Inability: Historical Episodes That Highlight a Significant Constitutional Problem

Abstract

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.