CONSTITUTIONAL VICES: Some Gaps In The System Of Presidential Succession And Transfer Of Executive Power For a couple of hours in late June, Vice President Dick Cheney became the Acting President of the United States, as George W. Bush underwent anesthesia for a scheduled medical procedure. The smooth handoff of presidential power from Bush to Cheney and back to Bush occurred pursuant to the Constitution's Twenty-fifth Amendment, which provides a detailed framework regulating various sorts of presidential disability. But this Amendment did not become part of the Constitution until 1967. Why did it take Americans nearly two centuries to clarify...