Acting President of The United States - Oath of Office

Oath of Office

The presidential oath is not taken by the Vice President upon the 25th Amendment's incapacity provision being invoked. As stated above, acting president is not the same as President. The former merely exercises the powers and duties of the President, without actually holding the office of President.

While the Constitution requires the President to take this oath upon entering into the office, the 25th Amendment states that, upon it being invoked "the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as acting president." Thus, the Vice President becomes acting president as soon as the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate receive the written declaration issued under either section 3 or section 4 of the 25th Amendment, no oath being required.

Precedent confirms that, since, in the three occasions when the 25th Amendment was invoked, there is no record of the Vice President having taken the oath. In the case of the Amendment's second invocation by President George W. Bush in 2002, a detailed account of the procedure was subsequently given by the White House Press Secretary, and no mention whatsoever was made of the oath being taken by the Vice President. Instead, it is recorded that Vice President Cheney was informed by telephone that he was now acting president as soon as the invocation letters signed by the President were transmitted to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate. Likewise, there is no historical record of Vice President George H. W. Bush taking the oath when he filled in for President Ronald Reagan during the latter's colon surgery nor of Cheney taking the oath the second time he assumed George W. Bush's presidential duties.

It should be noted, however, that the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 (that applies only when there is neither a President nor a Vice President able to discharge the powers and duties of the office) makes reference to the oath, albeit in an indirect manner. It states that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the Senate, and the mentioned members of the Cabinet, upon being called to act as President, shall resign their offices of origin, and, in the section referring to members of the Cabinet acting as President, it states that the taking of the oath of office by one person so called to act as President shall be held to constitute the said person's resignation from the Cabinet office by virtue of the holding of which he qualifies to act as President. However, the Act stops short of explicitly requiring the presidential oath to be taken. In any event, the Presidential Succession Act does not apply when the Vice President is the one in place to act as President.