When Does the House of Representatives Vote on Impeachment

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

/tiles/non-drove/i/i_origins_impeach_stevens_2009_129_001crop.xml Drove of the U.Due south. Business firm of Representatives
Well-nigh this object Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, a Radical Republican, gave the last voice communication during House fence on articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson on March 2, 1868. Johnson became the first president impeached by the House, but he was later acquitted by the Senate by one vote.

The Constitution gives the 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 part just besides provides a means by which a removed officer may exist disqualified from property future office. Fines and potential jail fourth dimension for crimes committed while in office are left to ceremonious courts.

Origins

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

Constitutional Framing

During the Federal Constitutional Convention, the framers addressed whether fifty-fifty to include impeachment trials in the Constitution, the venue and process for such trials, what crimes should warrant impeachment, and the likelihood of confidence. Rufus King of Massachusetts argued that having the legislative co-operative pass judgment on the executive would undermine the separation of powers; improve to permit elections punish a President. "The Executive was to agree his identify for a limited term like the members of the Legislature," King said, so "he would periodically be tried for his behaviour past his electors." Massachusetts's Elbridge Gerry, still, said impeachment was a fashion to proceed the executive in check: "A good magistrate will not fright [impeachments]. A bad 1 ought to exist kept in fear of them."

/tiles/non-collection/i/i_origins_impeachment_lesliesbutler_2016_148_000-21.xml Drove of the U.S. House of Representatives
Near this object The nation's first presidential impeachment riveted the country and dominated America'south newspapers in 1868, with blow-by-blow illustrations of the events.

Some other issue arose regarding whether Congress might lack the resolve to try and captive a sitting President. Presidents, some delegates observed, controlled executive appointments which ambitious Members of Congress might find desirable. Delegates to the Convention likewise remained undecided on the venue for impeachment trials. The Virginia Plan, which set the agenda for the Convention, initially contemplated using the judicial branch. Once more, though, the founders chose to follow the British example, where the House of Commons 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 Primary Justice would preside over the Senate during the trial.

The founders also addressed what crimes constituted grounds for impeachment. Treason and bribery were obvious choices, but George Mason of Virginia thought those crimes did not include a large number of punishable offenses against the country. James Madison of Virginia objected to using the term "maladministration" because it was too vague. Mason and so substituted "other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" in add-on 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 accustomed without farther debate. Just 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.South. Business firm of Representatives
About this object In 1974, presidential impeachment was closely followed past the press, the public, and the House itself.

The House'due south Role

The House brings impeachment charges against federal officials as part of its oversight and investigatory responsibilities. Individual Members of the House can introduce impeachment resolutions like ordinary bills, or the Business firm 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 Committee was created in 1813. The committee then chooses whether to pursue manufactures of impeachment confronting the accused official and report them to the total Business firm. If the articles are adopted (by unproblematic majority vote), the Business firm appoints Members by resolution to manage the ensuing Senate trial on its behalf. These managers act as prosecutors in the Senate and are normally members of the Judiciary Committee. The number of managers has varied across impeachment trials but has traditionally been an odd number. The partisan composition of managers has also varied depending on the nature of the impeachment, merely the managers, past definition, e'er support the House's impeachment action.

The Utilize of Impeachment

The House has initiated impeachment proceedings more than 60 times but less than a third have led to full impeachments. Merely eight—all federal judges—have been convicted and removed from role by the Senate. Outside of the 15 federal judges impeached by the Business firm, 3 Presidents [Andrew Johnson in 1868, William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton in 1998, and Donald J. Trump in 2022 and 2021], a chiffonier secretary (William Belknap in 1876), and a U.S. Senator (William Blount of Tennessee in 1797) have too been impeached. In just three instances—all involving removed federal judges—has the Senate taken the boosted footstep of barring them from always property time to come federal office.

Blount's impeachment trial—the first ever conducted—established the principle that Members of Congress and Senators were not "Civil Officers" under the Constitution, and appropriately, they could only be removed from office past a two-thirds vote for expulsion by their respective chambers. Blount, who had been accused of instigating an insurrection of American Indians to farther British interests in Florida, was not convicted, just the Senate did expel him. Other impeachments have featured judges taking the demote when drunk or profiting from their position. The trial of President Johnson, however, focused on whether the President could remove cabinet officers without obtaining Congress's approval. Johnson'southward acquittal firmly set the precedent—debated from the kickoff of the nation—that the President may remove appointees fifty-fifty if they required Senate confirmation to hold office.

For Further Reading

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

Kyvig, David Eastward. The Historic period of Impeachment: American Constitutional Civilisation Since 1960. (Lawrence, Kansas: Academy Press of Kansas, 2008).

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

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

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

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

"Study by the Staff of the Impeachment Inquiry on the Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment," Commission Print, Committee on the Judiciary, U.South. House of Representatives, 93rd Cong., 2nd sess., February 1974.

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

Sullivan, John. "Chapter 27—Impeachment," in House Practice: 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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