Visiting clinical professor John Rogan wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post on the ambiguity surrounding the ability of acting Cabinet secretaries to participate in enacting the 25th Amendment.
As many of Trump’s critics have learned since 2016, Section 4 of the 25th Amendment empowers the vice president and a majority of the “principal officers of the executive departments” to remove an “unable” president from the office’s powers and duties. Members of Congress who worked on the amendment said they intended the “principal officers” to be the leaders of the “executive departments” listed in a federal law. Officials holding positions a president might designate as “Cabinet-level,” such as the United Nations ambassador or director of national intelligence, were excluded.
There are 15 executive departments identified in the statute, three of which are led by acting secretaries. Overall, nine Senate-confirmed executive department heads have left their positions during the Trump administration’s first 2½ years — matching the total number of departures in the first terms of the past three presidencies combined (three for Obama, two for Bush and four for Clinton). In some cases, there have been long periods after the departures before Trump nominated replacements — although last week Trump said he intended to name Eugene Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, as labor secretary.