Unfit for office: The anniversary of the 25th Amendment

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File this one under weird timing. Some history about the 25th Amendment

This month marks the 55th anniversary of Congress’ passage of Senate Joint Resolution 139. You’ve probably never heard of it, but its consequences are as pertinent today as they were then. The nation had just lost President John F. Kennedy to an assassin’s bullet and, in its mourning, faced a constitutional crisis it did not even realize existed.
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At first, it was established that whichever candidate came in second in an election would assume the office of vice president. This meant that the second in line to the presidency would, most often, come from an opposing political party. With two political opposites occupying the White House, and the uncertainty of what would happen to the president’s platform if the vice president were to take over the office, there was great turmoil within the executive and legislative branches of the government. The Constitution was amended in 1804 so that the president and vice president were voted for on separate ballots, which, under the electoral college system, virtually assured the #2 in the White House would be of the same party as his or her boss.

What the Constitution, and this addition to it, did not do, though, was specify how a vice president who becomes president upon the loss of the commander in chief, chooses a second in command.
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Four Presidents have served their entire term without a Vice President.
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Senate Joint Resolution 139 was approved by the Senate through a roll-call vote of 65-0 in September. But because the congressional session would end within a month, and with the House of Representatives preoccupied by the Civil Rights Bill, SJR 139 was not forwarded to the lower legislative body until the following year. It was affirmed by the House in July of 1965 and submitted to the states for ratification. The General Assembly of Iowa, on January 26, 1967, became the 35th state to affirm it. Two weeks later, Nevada ratified the Bill, and the Vice Presidential Succession Act became the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution. - Iowa Gazette