Impeachment Constitutional Basis in the United States

Impeachment Constitutional Basis

Introduction to Impeachment Constitutional Basis

Article I, Sections 2 and 3 of the Constitution of the United States grant the power of impeachment to Congress. The Constitution gives the U.S. House of Representatives “the sole power of impeachment,” which is generally interpreted to mean the House is responsible for initiating impeachment proceedings. The U.S. Senate is granted “the sole power to try all impeachments,” which means the Senate is responsible for conducting trials of officials accused of wrongdoing. The Constitution provides few details about the format for Senate impeachment trials. In cases of presidential impeachment, the Constitution stipulates that the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States preside over the trial. In cases involving officials other than the president, the vice president presides. In all impeachment trials, a two-thirds majority of the Senate is required to convict. Officials who are convicted by the Senate are disqualified from holding other federal offices. Although the Constitution allows any federal official to be impeached, there is a long-standing precedent against impeaching members of the legislative branch.

Impeachable offenses are described in Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, which defines executive powers. It states “the President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and on conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Exactly what the authors of the Constitution meant by “high crimes and misdemeanors” has never been entirely clear. Treason and bribery are easy enough to understand, but deciding what other offenses constitute “high crimes and misdemeanors” has been more difficult, especially in the three presidential impeachment crises in the United States’ history. For example, lawyers at the time of the Nixon proceedings asked: “Is that phrase limited to acts which would be indictable as criminal offenses, or was it intended to reach abuses of office or breaches of trust not constituting criminal acts?”

Some of the Constitution’s authors wanted to include “maladministration” among the impeachable offenses, but others feared the power of impeachment would be used too frequently if Congress were guided by such a general term. The authors of the Constitution recognized that impeachment could be motivated by political as well as legal concerns. Eager to maintain the stability of the American government, they required a two-thirds Senate vote to remove officials from office.

Impeachment of federal officials has been a rare occurrence in American history. Except for judges, who cannot be voted out of office, politicians and the public have preferred to remove inept or unfit leaders through elections. Frequent impeachments of elected officials would transform America’s constitutional system into something more akin to a parliamentary one, where a vote of no confidence brings down an elected chief executive.” (1)

Resources

Notes and References

• Information about Impeachment Constitutional Basis in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to Impeachment Constitutional Basis