Civics 101 — Impeachment, or How to Bring Charges to Remove a Federal Government Official from Office
Don’t like the mayor or governor? Think the local sheriff is lazy? Convinced that Sen. So-and-So is corrupt? Disapprove of the president? Well, you could wait and vote them out in the next election, but what if the situation seems very serious and you want them out now? Then you may feel like joining the cry to “have the scoundrel impeached.”
However, at the national level, impeachment is the first step of a multi-step process contained in the United States Constitution to authorize the removal of government officials from office. It doesn’t apply to ordinary citizens, just to certain federal officials. That process begins with impeachment in the House of Representatives.
There are many misunderstandings about what impeachment can and can’t do. In fact, it can’t do what many assume are its main purposes; impeachment can’t remove someone from office nor can it impose a fine or send anyone to jail. Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump were both impeached but neither was removed from office. The impeachment procedure only allows the House to investigate and then recommend for or against handing an impeached official over to the Senate for trial. The House impeaches or indicts; the Senate convicts and removes from office, or acquits.
The impeachment process is much like a grand jury that meets to evaluate if there is enough evidence for a particular criminal case to go to trial.
England used a form of impeachment as far back as the 14th Century. Ironically, Britain's use of impeachment began to decline at about the same time that an impeachment process adapted from England's process was written into the new U.S. Constitution. The last impeachment in Britain was in 1806. While still legally available, Britons rely these days on a vote of no-confidence when they want to oust leadership.
Although the rules and grounds for impeachment vary, every state except Oregon has an impeachment clause in their state constitutions. In fact, several of these state impeachment clauses — including Maryland’s first constitution — were adopted before the U.S. Constitution was even written. Recently, in 2021, the New York state legislature began an impeachment inquiry into then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but Cuomo resigned before he was impeached. In February of this year, a Trump-supported Republican lawmaker in Maryland introduced a bill in the state legislature to impeach Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. The bill failed.
The process for the Federal level is outlined in the U.S. Constitution; and some relevant parts are quoted below.
Step 1. Charges or accusations against a government official are presented to the House by a House member or group of members — similar to introducing a bill.
Step 2. The House or a House committee investigates the charges and writes up Articles of Impeachment. Hearings are held.
Step 3. The full House votes yea or nay on the Articles of Impeachment. If the Articles do not pass, then the impeachment process ends and the accused remains in office. If the Articles pass, then the accused person has been officially impeached and the case is turned over to the Senate for trial. Technically, impeachment is over at this point.
Step 4. Trial and vote in the Senate. Senate rules state that the trial must begin at 1:00 pm on the day after the Articles of Impeachment are delivered to the Senate. However, there is no rule or time-table about how or when the House must deliver the articles.
Step 5. If the Senate votes to convict, then the impeached official is automatically and immediately removed from office. There is no other automatic penalty — no fine or imprisonment may be imposed.
Bonus Step. The Senate, in a separate, second vote, may also prohibit the convicted and removed official from ever holding public office again. This prohibition is not automatic upon conviction.
To pass, the Articles of Impeachment need a simple majority of those representatives present and voting. Today, if all 435 members of the House of Representatives are present and vote, passage would require 216 votes in favor of impeachment. While impeachment by the House only requires a simple majority, conviction in the Senate requires a supermajority of two-thirds of those present and voting. Almost everyone — House and Senate — shows up for these votes.
There are some broad conditions and limits. Articles of Impeachment may be brought only against the "President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States" and only if they are accused of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
Treason and bribery are relatively clear and well-understood terms, having basically the same meaning today as they did in Colonial times. However, the Constitution did not precisely define “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” or "civil Officer of the United States." Over the years, there has been a lot of argument and disagreement over these terms.
At the time the Constitution was written in 1787, “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” was a common term and generally referred to inappropriate and/or illegal activities by those who held a powerful or “high” office, especially when the office itself was used for personal profit, to play favorites, or to promote personal agendas and biases. Most impeachments have been for high crimes and misdemeanors.
While actual impeachment votes in the House are rather rare, demands for impeachment and threats of impeachments, especially of presidents, have been common throughout U.S. history. The ink was barely dry on the Constitution before the calls for impeachment of various officials started way back during George Washington’s administration. The first impeachment vote in the House was in 1797, the second in 1803. In total, the House has initiated impeachment proceedings 63 times but most were unsuccessful or charges were dropped without a vote.
To date, the House has voted to impeach 21 times, on charges against 20 people. Three presidents have been impeached — Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021. None were convicted.
Only eight impeachments of the 21 have resulted in a Senate conviction — all of those were federal judges. Another seven judges were impeached but acquitted in the Senate. Two other judges — one in 1873 and another in 1926 — were impeached but they resigned and the proceedings were halted before a Senate trial.
So far, no impeachments have charged treason. Three were for bribery; two of those officials were tried and removed from office by the Senate. The third resigned before trial and was — ironically — later acquitted by the Senate.
Impeachment is not part of the legal system but a congressional judgment on “fitness for office.”
Neither conviction nor acquittal affects the official’s exposure to legal prosecution. The accused person can be indicted in criminal court or sued in civil court regarding the same charges. If convicted in the legal system, there can be fines, imprisonment, or other punishments even if the person was acquitted in the House or Senate.
Likewise, impeachment charges do not need to be for actual “crimes,” that is, illegal activities. Officials have been impeached and convicted on charges of drunkenness and biased decisions. Andrew Johnson was charged in two articles for rude language along with bad behavior that reflected badly on the office of the presidency. These actions did not necessarily break any laws.
Conversely, some actual crimes have been determined to not amount to high crimes or misdemeanors. The Judiciary Committee of the House previously determined that any tax fraud committed by then-president Richard Nixon was not impeachable because it was committed in Nixon’s private life and was not an abuse of his authority as president.
Benjamin Franklin said that impeachment was a needed recourse for when a president “has rendered himself obnoxious.” In 1970, almost two hundred years later, Gerald Ford, then House minority leader and later president, added that "an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”
Sources and More information can be found at these websites:
40 Facts About the History of Impeachment, Trista, History Collection, May 26, 2019.
Constitution Facts
https://www.constitutionfacts.com
Impeachment, history.com editors, History, Feb. 21, 2021.
https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/impeachment-in-us-history
Impeachment Fast Facts, CNN Politics, Sept. 27, 2021.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/29/world/impeachment-fast-facts/index.html
Impeachment in the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_in_the_United_States
Jane Jewell is a writer, editor, photographer, and teacher. She has worked in news, publishing, and as the director of a national writer's group. She lives in Chestertown with her husband Peter Heck, a ginger cat named Riley, and a lot of books.
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