B X Lee -- OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS BY FOREMOST CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER AND FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS BY FOREMOST CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER AND FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
Congress Can Start Holding Hearings on Presidential Mental Capacity Right Away, Say Foremost Legal Experts
On May 11, 2026, foremost Constitutional lawyer, one-time U.S. Supreme Court nominee, and appointee of the Reagan administration Bruce Fein issued a very important, “OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS.” He coauthored the letter with former presidential candidate, consumer advocate, and fellow lawyer Ralph Nader. Together, they suggest a crucial avenue for overcoming the current barriers to the 25th Amendment: it is for Congress to appoint itself the “other body,” as Section 4 provides, and to step up to its role of protecting the country.
Here is what they have written:
OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS
We strongly urge legislation pursuant to section 4 of the 25th Amendment to depute Congress in lieu of the Vice President and principal officers of the executive departments with the power to determine whether the President is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” As regards President Donald Trump, the attached letter printed in the Congressional Record from renowned medical professionals across the political spectrum makes a convincing case for finding President Trump mentally unfit and dangerous to mankind. Since the letter was written, President Trump has threatened to destroy 6000 years of Iranian civilization, which includes Cyrus the Great’s release of Jews from Babylonian Captivity and Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat. Mr. Trump’s deranged raving on April 7 speaks for itself: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
Every day Mr. Trump remains in office is a roll of the dice with the survival of the species. President Trump might employ nuclear weapons against Iran in a fit of rage, which surely would be answered by China, Russia, and Pakistan. Vice President J.D. Vance and principal officers of the executive departments have displayed a spinelessness in response to Mr. Trump’s Hitler-like rants disqualifying them fairly appraising his ability to discharge the powers and duties of the White House. Congress must thus step into the breach by appropriate legislation. In exercising its judgment under the 25th Amendment, Congress would be expected to take testimony under oath of experts in the fields of physical or mental health.
We summon you to display the courage of the 56 signatories to the Declaration of Independence who signed their death warrants to secure unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness fortified by government by the consent of the governed.
Sincerely,
Bruce Fein
Ralph Nader
I understand from attending the workshops at Fordham Law School, on invitation by the 25th Amendment’s principal drafter, John Feerick, that the Amendment is not as prohibitive as the public has been misled to believe. The “other body,” for example, is intended to replace the Cabinet precisely at times like ours, when the principal officers of the executive departments cannot be entrusted to call out a president who is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Congress has the authority to appoint a body suited to the occasion, and Rep. Jamie Raskin has proposed a bill to form one that includes psychiatrists and other physicians.
However, according to Fein, there is an even more expedient path: Congress can appoint itself and immediately begin holding hearings! Psychiatrists and physicians do not have to be appointed to a body to give their input. In fact, we could right away testify to our Statement of Medical Concerns, now in the Congressional Record.
The vice president does not have to lead the charge but merely consents to acting as president pro tempore. The Fordham group also discussed provisions for when the president and vice president are both unable, for which the full order of succession has been clarified. Unfortunately, there may be a long line of succession to go through before we reach a leader who meets the minimal mental health criteria for fitness for duty—but this is the fault of ignoring the issue for so long, pretending that mental health issues were mere political disagreement, not a fault of the Amendment itself. An unfit leader was given inordinate time—either because of corruption, complicity, or simple denial—to appoint a whole coterie of unfit individuals to surround him, such that entire institutions have become incapacitated from the spread of his mental incompetence.
There is now a great distance between where we are in mental health awareness and where we need to be to tackle the crisis. There has been growing media coverage, but I wish to highlight here especially a citizen’s call:
Hi Dr. Lee,
I’m writing to thank you for your decade or more of work seeking to help citizens be protected from known dangers and harms of persons such as the 45th and 47th president of the U.S. I recently learned that you were included in the [Statement of Medical Concerns] entered in the Congressional Record on 4/30/26….
I’m now inquiring to ask if that recorded letter may suggest that you and/or your group of fellow Public Health experts were called into any form of Congressional Hearing, be it a shadow hearing, or investigative hearing or other? I would find such a hearing to be an even greater cause of hope [that] could help swing the U.S. citizenry’s growing dissatisfaction with Trump….
I could foresee that if only the 7 million remote persons who were measured to have participated in 1 or more of the 3 recent past No Kings Day events, were to submit direct messages, letter, emails, web posts to the Vice President, urging him to fulfill his duties of responsibility to protect citizens from known dangers…. this could bring to Mr. Vance’s mind the necessary urgency, and serious consideration necessary to recognize the negative alternatives, if he would knowingly NOT intervene,… while there exists the record of qualified psychiatrists, including yourself, as well as millions of citizens urge his TIMELY action….
If you are free to inform the public about an existing Congressional Hearing, or hearing granted by the Senate or the Federal Election Commission, toward establishing the requirement for all candidates for federal office, but especially for office of president, to submit to “fitness” pre-screening, prior to obtaining eligibility to have one’s name listed on any ballot for such federal office. This, too seems to be serious and nonpartisan issue directly linked to Public Safety and mental health…. our U.S. Congress must be made to admit their negligence and failure, and the logical implications of their complicity with the crimes and harms and deaths that Donald Trump has fomented and escalated, up to point of an illegal war by pirating the authority of the Executive Office of president.
Thank you.
Announcement:
Please join a CRITICAL PSYCHIATRIC MEETING this Friday, May15, 2026, at 8 p.m. EDT / 5 p.m. PDT.
Please encourage your family, friends, and colleagues to join!
The link for the Critical Psychiatric Meeting will be sent to paid subscribers at 7 p.m. EDT / 4 p.m. PDT on the day of the meeting.
We will discuss what is happening with our Statement of Medical Concerns, where the media and Congress are, and an enlightened citizenry’s critical role in this moment of national psychiatric emergency. The link will be sent to paid subscribers an hour before the meeting (apologies for making it paid, but it is in part for attendees’ protection).
Discussion about this post
https://bandyxlee.substack.com/p/open-letter-to-congress-by-foremost
It is so necessary that he be removed from Office. He is totally unfit and we all know that.
We must stop him before he becomes any more dangerous and reckless than he has proven to be.
This a one of many efforts to contain him. Thanks to Dr Bandy X Lee we have observed the urgent attempts to intervene in his dangerous psychopathological behavior.