Carlson: When did the Hopemeister turn bitter?

Impeachment

The Constitution says, “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.” This is called the impeachment process. It is the only way to remove the president, vice president, and federal judges from office.

Congress alone has the power to impeach and remove federal officers. The process has two parts. Under the first part, the House of Representatives holds hearings and votes on whether to impeach an officer. Impeachment is a formal charge that an officer has committed treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors. To impeach someone, the House must vote for impeachment by a simple majority.

If an officer is impeached in the House, the second part of the process is an impeachment trial in the Senate. The Senate conducts the trial much like a courtroom trial, but there is no judge or jury apart from the Senate. (An exception to this is impeachment trials of presidents, over which the U.S. Constitution requires the chief justice of the Supreme Court to preside. Even then, however, the chief justice simply enforces the Senate’s rules for the trial. He does not question witnesses or vote on whether to convict the president, as the senators do, because the Constitution limits his role to presiding over the trial.) At the end of the trial, the Senate votes on whether to convict the officer of the charges made by the House. Two-thirds of the senators present must vote in favor of conviction to convict an officer. If the Senate convicts an officer, the officer is removed from office. The Senate can also prevent a convicted officer from serving in another federal office in the future.

The Constitution says that when the House impeaches the president of the United States, the chief justice of the United States presides over the impeachment trial in the Senate. The chief justice is the head of the U.S. Supreme Court. Normally the vice president of the United States has the right to preside over Senate activities, but that would be inappropriate in a presidential impeachment trial because the vice president stands to get the president’s job if the president is removed from office.

When presiding over a presidential impeachment trial, the chief justice gets to rule on what evidence may and may not be presented to the Senate for consideration. Under its own rules, however, the Senate may overrule any ruling that the chief justice makes. The chief justice, moreover, does not get to vote on whether to convict the accused president. The chief justice’s main role is to see that the process runs smoothly.

As noted, impeachment can happen when a federal officer commits treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The Constitution defines treason as levying war against America or giving aid and comfort to its enemies. Bribery is when someone gives a government officer money or something else of value to influence the officer’s official conduct.

The Constitution does not define “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Some scholars think it means a serious violation of a criminal law. Others think it means what Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) called it in The Federalist, No. 65, “a violation of public trust.” In practice, the House and Senate get to define the term themselves in the impeachment process. For example, in 1998, the House impeached President Bill Clinton (1946–; served 1993–2001) for lying under oath regarding whether he had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky (1973–). The case generated much debate over whether lying under oath is a “high crime or misdemeanor” under the constitutional requirements for impeachment.

Although the Supreme Court has not addressed the issue as of 2005, members of Congress probably cannot be removed from office by impeachment. The House of Representatives impeached a U.S. senator once, William Blount of Tennessee in 1797. Blount was accused of conspiring to conduct military activities for the king of England. The Senate, however, voted not to conduct an impeachment trial, reasoning that it did not have power under the Constitution to conduct an impeachment trial of a senator. No senator or representative has been impeached since then.

Under Article I, Section 5, of the Constitution, however, each chamber of Congress gets to make its own rules for how to expel its members for misconduct. Under that provision, a two-thirds vote is necessary to expel a member from either the House or Senate. Although declining to hold an impeachment trial, the Senate expelled Senator Blount in 1797.

Do “we the people” have a role in making sure our government follows the procedure put in place to remove the offenders?

Keemo on September 10, 2009 at 7:48 PM