February 10, 1967

Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Minnesota and Nevada complete ratification of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment

Two legislatures crossed the line on the same day, and the surviving record does not establish which of them supplied ratification number 38.

Two states at once

On 10 February 1967 the Minnesota and Nevada legislatures both ratified the proposed Twenty-Fifth Amendment, supplying the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth of the ratifications required from fifty states.

Minnesota's research office says the time of day of the two votes is unclear and credits them jointly, so neither can safely be called the decisive state. Minnesota's House had approved on 17 January by 124–7; its Senate finished on the 10th, 64–0.

Thirty-six states had already ratified since Congress submitted the amendment on 6 July 1965, by a Senate vote of 68–5.

What the amendment set up

It clarified that a vice president becomes president after a president's death, resignation or removal, and created a procedure for filling a vice-presidential vacancy.

It also established voluntary and involuntary procedures for transferring presidential powers during inability. Section 4 does not remove a president: it transfers powers and duties to the vice president as Acting President, with Congress resolving a contested case.

No officeholder changed that day; what changed was that the Constitution now contained the procedures.

Certified thirteen days later

Reaching three-fourths made the amendment valid on 10 February. Lawson B. Knott Jr., the Administrator of General Services, certified that result on 23 February, and the certification appeared in the Federal Register on the 25th.

Some older compilations treat 23 February as the effective date. Congress.gov and the National Archives identify 10 February as the ratification date, with certification a later ministerial confirmation.

President Lyndon Johnson did not sign the amendment into the Constitution — Article V amendments do not require presidential approval — and the measure that prevailed was led and principally authored by Senator Birch Bayh.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The date is secure, but it is unsafe to call either Minnesota or Nevada alone the decisive 38th state. Minnesota's legislative research office says the time of day of the two ratifications is unclear and credits them jointly as the 37th and 38th states.
Some older compilations describe February 23, the certification date, as the amendment's effective date. Congress.gov and the National Archives identify February 10 as the ratification date; certification was a later ministerial confirmation.