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Yeah,for a sitting Secretary of State (and former White House Chief of Staff,) You'd think Haig would have known his role under 25.

(BTW: it's the 12th Amendment that sends it to the House.)



Ummmm. The 25th amendment covers filling the presidency if the president is incapacitated and the filling of the Vice Presidency if vacant. [Actually the first time it was used was to filled it on a resignation, Gerald Ford for Agnew].

Like the Constitution itself, there is no assignment of succession beyond the Vice President in the 25th Amendment.


The succession order is from the "Presidential Succession Act of 1947" which replaced the one from the 1880s. It has been amended at times since ... like when Homeland Security was added to the cabinet.

Congress' power to delineate the order of succession is based on the powers assigned to it by Article II, Section 1 "the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected."

Haig once explained that he was acting on the succession as he learned it in school as a child - which placed the Sec of State after the President.



btw, the 25th Amendment also "legalized" the interpretation of John Tyler that the Vice President assumed the office. After Tyler's "usurpation" this became the practice. It is unclear what the framers intended when a President died. Many believe that they intended the VP to serve only until a special election could be held and not the VP taking over for the remainder of the term.
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