Democratic control of Congress improves the odds that lawmakers could act under the 25th Amendment, but only compared with a Congress controlled by Republicans. It does not transform Section 4 into a convenient eject button for removing President Donald Trump.

That is the assessment from Jordan Rubin, a legal analyst for “Deadline: White House” and writer of the Deadline: Legal Blog. Rubin addressed whether Democratic majorities would create a better chance of invoking Section 4 against Trump.

His short answer was yes, but the constitutional math remains daunting. Unless Trump experiences a genuinely debilitating medical event, Rubin would not expect the provision to be used during Trump’s final two years in the White House.

The 25th Amendment, adopted after President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination, addresses presidential succession and disability. Section 4 has never been used, and its elaborate process requires far more than Democratic control of Congress.

Under Section 4, the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet, or another body designated by Congress, can declare that the president “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” If such a declaration were made against Trump, Vice President JD Vance would “immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”

That would not necessarily settle the matter. The president can tell Congress that he is able to serve, allowing him to reclaim his powers unless the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet, or the congressionally designated body, again declare him unable.

Congress would then decide the dispute. Keeping the vice president in place as acting president would require a two thirds vote in both the House and Senate finding that the president cannot discharge the powers and duties of the office.

Democrats will hold solid majorities in both chambers, but they will not control two thirds of either one. Even if Vance and a Cabinet majority initiated the process, Republican votes would still be necessary for the declaration to survive congressional review.

That is why Rubin argues Section 4 would probably require clear incapacitation, rather than allegations that Trump is corrupt, criminal or not in control of his faculties. The circumstances would need to demand the kind of immediate, practical resolution that the amendment appears designed to provide.

For misconduct or corruption, impeachment is the more appropriate constitutional mechanism. It is also somewhat easier to execute, although the Constitution deliberately makes removal difficult by requiring a simple House majority to impeach and a two thirds Senate vote to convict.

Democrats will have the House majority needed to bring an impeachment if they choose. They will not have two thirds of the Senate, meaning conviction would again depend on support from Republican senators.

Trump was impeached twice during his first term and acquitted both times. According to Rubin, the same basic numbers problem that kept Trump in office then would confront Democrats in any new impeachment effort during the forthcoming Congress.

Another provision of the 25th Amendment could also become relevant under Democratic congressional control. Section 2 provides that when the vice presidency becomes vacant, the president nominates a replacement who must win approval from a majority in both chambers.

If Vance were to vacate the vice presidency after the new Congress is seated, Democratic majorities would therefore have a role in confirming his replacement. Unlike Section 4, Section 2 has been used twice.

Congress used Section 2 to confirm Gerald Ford as vice president in 1973 after Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned. After President Richard Nixon resigned the following year amid the Watergate scandal, lawmakers used it again to confirm Nelson Rockefeller as Ford’s vice president.

The midterm results give Democrats more power over impeachment, a potential vice presidential vacancy and any Section 4 dispute reaching Congress. But without substantial Republican cooperation, Democratic majorities alone cannot clear the Constitution’s steep barriers to displacing Trump.