Impeachment (U.S.)
Image: Portion of the 2021 House Resolution impeaching President Trump.
What is Impeachment?
Impeachment refers to the ability of the House of Representatives to begin a process which can – if it garners enough support in the Senate – result in the removal of federal officials (e.g. the president, vice president, a Supreme Court justice) from office.
The process can also result in the removed official being banned for life from holding the office again.
The House of Representatives may impeach a federal official with a simple majority vote.
If the House votes to impeach, the Senate then tries the impeached individual and can, with the support of 2/3 of the senators present, remove the official from office.
Officials can be impeached for treason, bribery, or "other high crimes and misdemeanors."
The inclusion in the Constitution of the imprecise phrase "other high crimes and misdemeanors" gives the House significant latitude to determine what constitutes an impeachable offense.
In the event that a president is impeached by the House, convicted by the Senate, and thereby removed from office, the vice president shall assume the presidency for the remainder of the presidential term.
There are no constitutional restrictions on the number of times an official may be impeached.
Lifetime Ban
Impeachment and conviction can result in a lifetime ban from holding federal public office.
Once an official has been impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate, a second vote can be held in the Senate which imposes the ban.
The vote to ban requires only a simple majority in the Senate to pass, unlike conviction which requires a 2/3 majority of the senators present.
Which Presidents Have Been Impeached?
Impeachment of a president has historically been a rare occurrence: only 3 presidents, of the 45 who have held the office at the time of publishing, have been impeached.
And no president has ever been convicted in the Senate and removed from office.
Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 following a clash between Johnson and the Congress over the issue of post-Civil War reconstruction of the South. Despite the opposition Republicans holding more than the necessary 2/3 of Senate seats needed to convict, Johnson was not convicted by the Senate.
Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 on charges related to lying under oath about his extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was not convicted by the Senate.
Donald Trump is the only president to have been impeached twice.
He was first impeached in 2019 on charges of misusing the powers of the presidency to acquire dirt on a political rival in the run-up to his re-election bid. He was not convicted by the Senate.
Trump was impeached again on January 13, 2021 on the charge of inciting an insurrection which resulted in a mob breaking into the U.S. Capitol Building. A majority of 57 senators voted to convict, including seven Republicans. Seven Republicans joining all 50 Democrats in voting to convict made this the most bipartisan support for conviction of a president in an impeachment trial in American history. However, this still fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.
Though he was not impeached, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate Scandal, facing the imminent prospect of impeachment and likely conviction in the Senate if he did not.
Other Impeachments
The House voted to impeach Senator William Blount in 1797.
This was the first impeachment proceeding under America’s current Constitution, which had been ratified in 1788 and formally entered into force in March of 1789, superseding America’s first constitution, the Articles of Confederation.
Blount was expelled by the Senate of its own volition under the discipline clause of the Constitution, independent of impeachment proceedings.
The Senate then voted to dismiss the impeachment, though it did not elaborate whether its reason for dismissal was that Blount had already been expelled and was therefore no longer an impeachable official, or whether it was because the Senate believed that the House did not have the right to impeach a senator.
It therefore remains unclear whether the House has the authority to impeach a senator.
The House impeached William Belknap, the Secretary of War (and thus a member of the president’s cabinet), in 1873.
Belknap resigned his position before the Senate trial began.
Despite his resignation, the Senate proceeded to carry out a trial.
The Belknap case therefore provides a precedent for the conducting of an impeachment trial even after the impeached official has resigned his post.
A majority of the Senate voted to convict Belknap on each of the five articles of impeachment passed by the House.
But, as conviction in the Senate requires a 2/3 majority, Belknap was acquitted.
In addition to presidential impeachments, the impeachment of a senator, and the impeachment of a cabinet secretary, the House has impeached 15 federal judges, one of whom was a Supreme Court justice. Of the 15 impeached judges, 8 were convicted by the Senate.
Constitutional Basis
What follows is a summary of the provisions of the U.S. Constitution that deal with the issue of impeachment.
Art. I, § 2, cl. 5
Article 1, section 2, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution grants the House of Representatives the sole authority to launch impeachment proceedings.
The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment.
First Page of the U.S. Constitution. Courtesy U.S. National Archive.
Art. I, § 3, cl. 6
Article 1, section 3, clause 6 of the U.S. Constitution states that, once the House has voted to impeach a public official, the Senate will conduct a trial.
It does not articulate exactly how the Senate must proceed to do so, only stating that senators must take an oath at the start of the process, that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside over a trial of the president, and that conviction requires the support of 2/3 of the senators present.
The Senate therefore has significant latitude in determining how exactly the trial of an impeached official will proceed.
The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.
Art. I, § 3, cl. 7
Article 1, section 3, clause 7 of the U.S. Constitution states that a trial by the Senate of an impeached official does not constitute a criminal trial.
However, the impeached individual may be separately subject to criminal charges which might be brought against him by the relevant prosecutors.
For example, the impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate of a president cannot sentence the president to prison. But subsequent charges may be brought by the relevant officials (e.g. the district attorney for the district in which the president is alleged to have committed a crime) which result in prison time or other penalties.
Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.
Art. II, § 2
Article 2, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution prohibits the use of the president’s pardon powers to pardon an impeachment.
For example, assume a president is impeached, convicted, and thereby removed from office, elevating the vice president to the presidency for the remainder of the presidential term. The vice president turned president may not then pardon the impeachment of his predecessor.
[The president] shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
Art. II, § 4
Article 2, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution states the president, vice president and all “civil officers of the United States” are subject to impeachment and conviction by the Senate for treason, bribery, or “other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
The inclusion of the imprecise phrase "other high crimes and misdemeanors" gives the House significant latitude to determine what constitutes an impeachable offense.
The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
The Federalist Papers on Impeachment
Between October 1787 and May 1788, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison anonymously authored - under the pseudonym “Publius” - a series of 85 essays in New York newspapers which advocated the ratification of the U.S. Constitution drafted at the 1787 Constitutional Convention.
Of the 85 essays, John Jay wrote 5 before falling ill, Madison wrote 29, and Hamilton authored 51.
These essays are today collectively referred to as the Federalist Papers and are referenced by order of publication. So, Federalist 25 refers to the 25th in this series of 85 essays.
The Supreme Court has often turned to these essays when adjudicating disputes over interpreting the Constitution and has referenced them in its opinions.
Thus, these 85 essays, originally intended as a tool for rallying support for the proposed Constitution drafted at the Constitutional Convention, have since taken on a more enduring function: providing present-day jurists with insights into how the architects of the Constitution intended it to be read and interpreted.
Federalist 65 and Federalist 66, both of which were written by Hamilton, argued in defense of the impeachment mechanism established by the Constitution.
Federalist 65 also offers insights into how the framers of the Constitution settled on this mechanism at the Constitutional Convention, which Hamilton attended as a delegate from New York.
1806 portrait of Alexander Hamilton. Artist: John Trumbull.
Written By: Aiden Singh Published: January 11, 2021 Last Updated: February 16, 2021