What Is the House of Representatives Role in Impeachment Proceedings

"The President, Vice President and all Ceremonious Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other loftier Crimes and Misdemeanors."
— U.Southward. Constitution, Article II, section 4

/tiles/non-drove/i/i_origins_impeach_stevens_2009_129_001crop.xml Drove of the U.S. Business firm of Representatives
About this object Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, a Radical Republican, gave the last speech during Firm contend on articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson on March two, 1868. Johnson became the get-go president impeached by the Business firm, simply he was subsequently acquitted by the Senate by ane vote.

The Constitution gives the Business firm of Representatives the sole power to impeach an official, and it makes the Senate the sole court for impeachment trials. The power of impeachment is limited to removal from role but also provides a means by which a removed officeholder may be disqualified from holding hereafter office. Fines and potential jail fourth dimension for crimes committed while in office are left to civil courts.

Origins

Impeachment comes from British ramble history. The process evolved from the 14th century equally a manner for parliament to hold the king'south ministers answerable for their public actions. Impeachment, as Alexander Hamilton of New York explained in Federalist 65, varies from civil or criminal courts in that it strictly involves the "misconduct of public men, or in other words from the corruption or violation of some public trust." Individual state constitutions had provided for impeachment for "maladministration" or "corruption" before the U.S. Constitution was written. And the founders, fearing the potential for abuse of executive power, considered impeachment so important that they made it part of the Constitution even before they defined the contours of the presidency.

Ramble Framing

During the Federal Ramble Convention, the framers addressed whether even to include impeachment trials in the Constitution, the venue and process for such trials, what crimes should warrant impeachment, and the likelihood of conviction. Rufus King of Massachusetts argued that having the legislative branch pass judgment on the executive would undermine the separation of powers; better to let elections punish a President. "The Executive was to hold his place for a limited term like the members of the Legislature," Rex said, so "he would periodically be tried for his behaviour by his electors." Massachusetts's Elbridge Gerry, however, said impeachment was a way to keep the executive in check: "A practiced magistrate will non fear [impeachments]. A bad one ought to exist kept in fearfulness of them."

/tiles/not-collection/i/i_origins_impeachment_lesliesbutler_2016_148_000-21.xml Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives
Almost this object The nation's commencement presidential impeachment riveted the land and dominated America's newspapers in 1868, with accident-by-blow illustrations of the events.

Another effect arose regarding whether Congress might lack the resolve to endeavor and convict a sitting President. Presidents, some delegates observed, controlled executive appointments which aggressive Members of Congress might notice desirable. Delegates to the Convention also remained undecided on the venue for impeachment trials. The Virginia Plan, which ready the calendar for the Convention, initially contemplated using the judicial branch. Again, though, the founders chose to follow the British instance, where the House of Eatables brought charges against officers and the House of Lords considered them at trial. Ultimately, the founders decided that during presidential impeachment trials, the House would manage the prosecution, while the Chief Justice would preside over the Senate during the trial.

The founders as well addressed what crimes constituted grounds for impeachment. Treason and blackmail were obvious choices, merely George Mason of Virginia thought those crimes did not include a big number of punishable offenses against the state. James Madison of Virginia objected to using the term "maladministration" because it was too vague. Mason then substituted "other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" in improver to treason and bribery. The term "loftier Crimes and Misdemeanors" was a technical term—again borrowed from British legal practice—that denoted crimes past public officials against the government. Mason'southward revision was accepted without further debate. Simply subsequent experience demonstrated the revised phrase failed to clarify what constituted impeachable offenses.

/tiles/non-collection/i/i_origins_impeachment_watergatetapes_PA2019_12_0027.xml Collection of the U.Southward. Firm of Representatives
About this object In 1974, presidential impeachment was closely followed by the press, the public, and the House itself.

The Business firm's Role

The House brings impeachment charges against federal officials equally part of its oversight and investigatory responsibilities. Private Members of the House can introduce impeachment resolutions like ordinary bills, or the House could initiate proceedings past passing a resolution authorizing an inquiry. The Committee on the Judiciary ordinarily has jurisdiction over impeachments, but special committees investigated charges before the Judiciary Commission was created in 1813. The committee then chooses whether to pursue manufactures of impeachment against the accused official and report them to the total Firm. If the manufactures are adopted (by simple bulk vote), the Firm appoints Members by resolution to manage the ensuing Senate trial on its behalf. These managers act as prosecutors in the Senate and are commonly members of the Judiciary Committee. The number of managers has varied beyond impeachment trials just has traditionally been an odd number. The partisan composition of managers has as well varied depending on the nature of the impeachment, but the managers, by definition, always support the Firm'southward impeachment action.

The Use of Impeachment

The House has initiated impeachment proceedings more than 60 times merely less than a third have led to total impeachments. Simply eight—all federal judges—have been bedevilled and removed from office by the Senate. Outside of the xv federal judges impeached past the Firm, three Presidents [Andrew Johnson in 1868, William Jefferson (Neb) Clinton in 1998, and Donald J. Trump in 2022 and 2021], a cabinet secretary (William Belknap in 1876), and a U.S. Senator (William Blount of Tennessee in 1797) have also been impeached. In only 3 instances—all involving removed federal judges—has the Senate taken the additional stride of barring them from ever holding future federal office.

Blount's impeachment trial—the first e'er conducted—established the principle that Members of Congress and Senators were not "Civil Officers" under the Constitution, and appropriately, they could just be removed from role past a 2-thirds vote for expulsion by their corresponding chambers. Blount, who had been accused of instigating an insurrection of American Indians to further British interests in Florida, was not convicted, simply the Senate did expel him. Other impeachments accept featured judges taking the bench when drunkard or profiting from their position. The trial of President Johnson, yet, focused on whether the President could remove chiffonier officers without obtaining Congress's approval. Johnson'due south acquittal firmly set up the precedent—debated from the showtime of the nation—that the President may remove appointees fifty-fifty if they required Senate confirmation to hold office.

For Farther Reading

Farrand, Max, ed. The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. Rev. ed. iv vols. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1937).

Kyvig, David Due east. The Age of Impeachment: American Ramble Culture Since 1960. (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2008).

Les Bridegroom, Michael. The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson. (New York: W.W. Norton & Visitor, 1999).

Madison, James, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay. The Federalist Papers. (New York: Penguin Books, 1987).

Melton, Buckner F., Jr. The First Impeachment: The Constitution'southward Framers and the Example of Senator William Blount. (Macon, Georgia: Mercer Academy Press, 1998).

Rehnquist, William H. One thousand Inquests: The Celebrated Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson. (New York: Harper Perennial, 1999).

"Report past the Staff of the Impeachment Inquiry on the Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment," Committee Print, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Business firm of Representatives, 93rd Cong., 2nd sess., February 1974.

Storing, Herbert J., ed. The Complete Anti-Federalist. 7 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981).

Sullivan, John. "Chapter 27—Impeachment," in House Exercise: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents, and Procedures of the House. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2011).

Thomas, David Y. "The Law of Impeachment in the United States," The American Political Science Review 2 (May 1908): 378–395.

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Source: https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Impeachment/

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