Impeachment in the United States

thumb|303x303px|The [[impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, the first presidential impeachment trial in US history]]

In the United States, impeachment is the process by which a legislature may bring charges against an elected member of the executive branch or an appointed official for severe alleged misconduct, and may result in removal of the guilty from their position after the consequential trial. In addition to Congress at the federal level, impeachment may occur at the state level if the state or commonwealth has provisions for it under its constitution. Impeachment might also occur with tribal governments as well as at the local level of government. Separate procedures are in place for elected members of the legislature to remove a peer for a comparable level of misconduct.

The federal House of Representatives can impeach a party with a simple majority of the House members present or such other criteria as the House adopts in accordance with Article One, Section 2, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution. This triggers a federal impeachment trial in the United States Senate, which can vote by a two-thirds majority to convict an official, removing them from office. The Senate can also vote to bar an individual convicted in a senate impeachment trial from holding future federal office with a simple-majority vote.

Most state legislatures can impeach state officials, including the governor, in accordance with their respective state constitution. A number of organized United States territories do as well. Additionally, impeachment is a practice of other government bodies, such as tribal governments.

Impeachment proceedings are remedial rather than punitive in nature, and the remedy is limited to removal from office. Because the process is not punitive, a party may also be subject to criminal or civil trial, prosecution, and conviction under the law after removal from office. Also because the conviction is not a punishment, the president of the United States is constitutionally prevented from granting a pardon to impeached and convicted persons, that may have protected them from the consequences of a conviction in an impeachment trial.

Federal impeachment

thumb|upright=1.20|The 1999 [[Impeachment of Bill Clinton|impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, Chief Justice William Rehnquist presiding]]

thumb|upright=1.20|The 2020 [[first impeachment trial of Donald Trump, Chief Justice John Roberts presiding]]

Constitutional provisions

Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution provides:

Article I, Section 3, Clauses 6 and 7 provide:

Article II, Section 2 provides:

Article II, Section 4 provides:

The Constitution limits grounds of impeachment to "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors", but does not itself define "high crimes and misdemeanors".

The Constitution gives Congress the authority to impeach and remove "The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States" upon a determination that such officers have engaged in treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The Constitution does not articulate who qualifies as a "civil officer of the United States". Federal judges are subject to impeachment. Within the executive branch, any presidentially appointed "principal officer", including a head of an agency such as a secretary, administrator, or commissioner, is a "civil officer of the United States" subject to impeachment. At the opposite end of the spectrum, lesser functionaries, such as federal civil service employees, do not exercise "significant authority", and are not appointed by the president or an agency head. These employees do not appear to be subject to impeachment, though that may be a matter of allocation of House floor debate time by the Speaker, rather than a matter of law.

The Senate has concluded that members of Congress (representatives and senators) are not "civil officers" for purposes of impeachment. As a practical matter, expulsion is effected by the simpler procedures of Article I, Section 5, which provides "Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members... Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member" (see List of United States senators expelled or censured and List of United States representatives expelled, censured, or reprimanded). This allows each House to expel its own members without involving the other chamber. In 1797, the House of Representatives impeached Senator William Blount of Tennessee.

The constitutional text is silent on whether an officer can be tried after the officer resigns or their term ends. However, when the issue has arisen, the House has been willing to impeach after resignation, and the Senate has been willing to try the official after resignation. In 1797, the Senate continued impeachment proceedings against William Blount even after he had been expelled from office, dismissing the proceedings only after determining that a Senator is not a "civil officer of the United States". In 1876, William W. Belknap was impeached by the House of Representatives hours after resigning as United States Secretary of War. The Senate held by a 37–29 vote that it had jurisdiction to try Belknap notwithstanding his resignation, but ultimately acquitted him after trial. The permissibility of trying a former official was a major issue in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, which commenced twenty days after Trump's term in office expired, although Trump's impeachment itself occurred while he was president. By a 55–45 vote, the Senate rejected a motion asserting that the trial was unconstitutional.

The Constitution does not limit the number of times an individual may be impeached. As of 2025, Donald Trump is the only federal officer to have been impeached more than once.

Process

At the federal level, the impeachment process is typically a three-step procedure. The first phase is typically an impeachment inquiry, though this is not a required stage. The two stages constitutionally required for removal are impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial by the United States Senate.

First, the House investigates through an impeachment inquiry.
Second, the House of Representatives must pass, by a simple majority of those present and voting, articles of impeachment, which constitute the formal allegation or allegations. Upon passage, the defendant has been "impeached".
Third, the Senate tries the accused. In the case of the impeachment of a president, the chief justice of the United States presides over the proceedings. For the impeachment of any other official, the Constitution is silent on who shall preside, suggesting that this role falls to the Senate's usual presiding officer, the president of the Senate, who is also the vice president of the United States. Conviction in the Senate requires the concurrence of a two-thirds supermajority of those present. The result of conviction is removal from office and (optionally, in a separate vote) disqualification from holding any federal office in the future, which requires a concurrence of only a majority of senators present.

Impeachment in the House of Representatives

thumb|upright=1.2|left|First day of the Judiciary Committee's formal [[Impeachment process against Richard Nixon|impeachment hearings against President Nixon, May 9, 1974]]

Impeachment proceedings may be requested by a member of the House of Representatives, either by presenting a list of the charges under oath or by asking for referral to the appropriate committee. The impeachment process may be requested by non-members. For example, when the Judicial Conference of the United States suggests a federal judge be impeached, a charge of actions constituting grounds for impeachment may come from a special prosecutor, the president, or state or territorial legislature, grand jury, or by petition. An impeachment proceeding formally begins with a resolution adopted by the full House of Representatives.

The proceedings take the form of a trial, with the Senate having the right to call witnesses and each side having the right to perform cross-examinations. The House members, who are given the collective title of managers during the trial, present the prosecution case, and the impeached official has the right to mount a defense with his or her own attorneys as well. Senators must also take an oath or affirmation that they will perform their duties honestly and with due diligence. After hearing the charges, the Senate usually deliberates in private. The Constitution requires a two-thirds supermajority to convict a person being impeached. The Senate enters judgment on its decision, whether that be to convict or acquit, and a copy of the judgment is filed with the Secretary of State.

Beginning in the 1980s with Harry E. Claiborne, the Senate began using "Impeachment Trial Committees" pursuant to Senate Rule XI. the Supreme Court determined that the federal judiciary could not review such proceedings, as matters related to impeachment trials are political questions and could not be resolved in the courts.

In the case of impeachment of the president, the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial. During the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, some Senate Republicans argued that the chief justice was required to preside, even though Trump was no longer the president when the trial began. However, by a 55–45 vote, the Senate rejected a motion asserting that the trial was unconstitutional. The majority of the Senate ruled that the articles accusing Mayorkas of willfully and systematically refusing to comply with Federal immigration laws and breaching the public trust did not "allege conduct that rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor".

Removal and disqualification

Conviction immediately removes the defendant from office. Following the vote on conviction, the Senate may by a separate vote also bar the individual from holding future federal office, elected or appointed. As the threshold for disqualification is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, the Senate has taken the position that disqualification votes only require a simple majority rather than a two-thirds supermajority. The Senate has used disqualification sparingly, as only three individuals (West Hughes Humphreys, Robert W. Archbald, and Thomas Porteous) have been disqualified from holding future office.

Conviction does not extend to further punishment, for example, loss of pension. After conviction by the Senate, "the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law" in the regular federal or state courts. However, the Former Presidents Act of 1958, which provides a pension and other benefits, does not extend to presidents who were removed from office following an impeachment conviction. Because of an amendment to that law in 2013, a former president who has been removed from office due to impeachment and conviction is still guaranteed lifetime Secret Service protection.

Impeachment by state and territorial governments

thumb|Photograph of a scene from the 1913 impeachment of New York Governor [[William Sulzer]]

State legislatures can impeach state officials, including governors and judicial officers, in every state. The court for the trial of impeachments may differ somewhat from the federal model—in New York, for instance, the Assembly (lower house) impeaches, and the State Senate tries the case, but the members of the seven-judge New York State Court of Appeals (the state's highest, constitutional court) sit with the senators as jurors as well. Impeachment and removal of governors has happened occasionally throughout the history of the United States, usually for corruption charges. At least eleven U.S. state governors have faced an impeachment trial; a twelfth, Governor Lee Cruce of Oklahoma, escaped impeachment by one vote in 1912. Several others, including Missouri's Eric Greitens in 2018, have resigned rather than face impeachment, when events seemed to make it inevitable. The most recent impeachment of a state governor occurred on January 14, 2009, when the Illinois House of Representatives voted 117–1 to impeach Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges; he was subsequently removed from office and barred from holding future office by the Illinois Senate on January 29.

In addition, the legislatures of the territories of American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico have impeachment powers.

The procedure for impeachment, or removal, of local officials varies widely. For instance, in New York a mayor can be removed directly by the governor "upon being heard" on charges—the law makes no further specification of what charges are necessary or what the governor must find in order to remove a mayor.

In 2018, the entire Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia was impeached, something that has been often threatened, but had never happened before.

Most states follow the same model as the United States federal government of having the lower chamber of their legislatures hold a vote to "impeach", thereby triggering an impeachment trial held in the upper chamber of their legislatures. However, several states do differ from the convention of holding the impeachment trial in the state legislature's upper chamber. In a reverse, in Alaska it is the upper chamber of the legislature that votes to impeach while the lower chamber acts as the court of impeachment. In Nebraska, which has a unicameral legislature, after the Nebraska Legislature votes to impeach, an impeachment trial takes place before the Nebraska Supreme Court. In addition to all the members of its upper chamber, the state of New York's Court of the Trial of Impeachments also includes all seven members of the state's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals.

Impeachment by other government bodies and organizations in the United States

Other governments and organizations in the United States also utilize impeachment.

Tribal governments and other tribal organizations

Many tribal governments have impeachment, with tribes generally utilizing a similar bifurcated process to the federal government, having an impeachment vote followed by an impeachment trial. Examples of tribal governments that have an impeachment process include the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and Oglala Sioux.

The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy's Great Law of Peace, which predates the constitution of the United States, includes what amounts to an impeachment process through which clan mothers can remove and replace a sachem for misdeeds. This is unique in that only a tribe's women are allowed to remove a sachem through this process.

A notable Native impeachment attempt was the 1975 effort to impeach Dick Wilson as chairman of the Oglala of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This immediately preceded the Wounded Knee Occupation.

Examples of Native tribal officials that were impeached include:

Locher Harjo – impeached and removed in 1876 as chief of the Lower Creeks Muscogee
Johnathan L. "Ed" Taylor – impeached and removed in 1995 as principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Cecilia Fire Thunder – impeached three times in 2005 and 2006 as president of the Oglala Sioux, removed on third impeachment
John Red Eagle – impeached and removed in 2014 as chief of the Osage Nation
Ben Martinez – impeached in 2016 as a member of the Mescalero Apache Tribal Council
Patrick Lambert – impeached and removed in 2017 as principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Darla Black – impeached and removed in 2019 as vice chairwoman of the Oglala Sioux Tribe
Joe Brunch – impeached in 2020 as chief of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians
Donna Fisher – impeached and removed in 2022 as president of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council

Municipal governments

Some municipal governments currently or previously have had to power to impeach municipal officials such as mayors. Cities where municipal governments allow impeachment proceedings include cities such as Houston, Texas. An example of an impeachment by a municipal government is that of Philip Tomppert, who was removed through impeachment as the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky by the Louisville Board of Aldermen (city council) in 1865.

Other organizations

There are other organizations in the United States that have impeachment procedures, including students' union ("student government"/"student council") organizations.

Impeachment during the Colonial Era

Several of the Thirteen Colonies belonging to England that later formed the original states of the United States of America held impeachments. Impeachment was a process carried over from England. Unlike in modern America, but similarly to the practice of impeachment in England, in at least some colonies impeachment was a process that could also be used to try non-officeholders and give criminal penalties. However, in practice, the colonies primarily limited their impeachments to officeholders and punishment to removal from office. Most charges in impeachments were related to misconduct in office. Like the English impeachment practice and modern United States federal impeachment practice, the charges would be brought by a colonial legislature's lower chamber and tried in its upper chamber.

References

Citations

Attribution

External links

An Overview of the Impeachment Process at congressionalresearch.com
Congressional Research Service at congressionalresearch.com
Constitution Annotated - Resources about Impeachment
House Judiciary Committee, Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment, February 1974, and Politico story, September 2019
U.S. Senate : Impeachment