Can the House Impeach a President Without the Senate Vote

"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 high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
— U.S. Constitution, Commodity 2, department 4

/tiles/not-collection/i/i_origins_impeach_stevens_2009_129_001crop.xml Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives
About this object Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, a Radical Republican, gave the final spoken communication during House debate on articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson on March ii, 1868. Johnson became the kickoff president impeached past the Business firm, only he was later acquitted by the Senate by 1 vote.

The Constitution gives the House of Representatives the sole power to impeach an official, and it makes the Senate the sole courtroom for impeachment trials. The power of impeachment is limited to removal from office but likewise provides a means past which a removed officer may be disqualified from holding future part. Fines and potential jail time for crimes committed while in part are left to ceremonious courts.

Origins

Impeachment comes from British constitutional history. The process evolved from the 14th century as a way for parliament to concur the king's ministers accountable 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 "abuse" before the U.South. Constitution was written. And the founders, fearing the potential for abuse of executive power, considered impeachment then important that they made it function of the Constitution even earlier they divers the contours of the presidency.

Constitutional Framing

During the Federal Constitutional Convention, the framers addressed whether even to include impeachment trials in the Constitution, the venue and procedure 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 concord his place for a limited term like the members of the Legislature," King said, so "he would periodically exist tried for his behaviour past his electors." Massachusetts's Elbridge Gerry, however, said impeachment was a way to keep the executive in check: "A good magistrate will not fear [impeachments]. A bad 1 ought to be kept in fear of them."

/tiles/not-drove/i/i_origins_impeachment_lesliesbutler_2016_148_000-21.xml Drove of the U.South. Business firm of Representatives
Most this object The nation's starting time presidential impeachment riveted the land and dominated America's newspapers in 1868, with blow-by-accident illustrations of the events.

Another event arose regarding whether Congress might lack the resolve to attempt and convict a sitting President. Presidents, some delegates observed, controlled executive appointments which ambitious Members of Congress might find desirable. Delegates to the Convention also remained undecided on the venue for impeachment trials. The Virginia Plan, which set the calendar for the Convention, initially contemplated using the judicial branch. Once again, though, the founders chose to follow the British instance, where the House of Commons brought charges against officers and the Firm 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 also addressed what crimes constituted grounds for impeachment. Treason and blackmail were obvious choices, but George Bricklayer of Virginia thought those crimes did not include a large number of punishable offenses confronting the land. James Madison of Virginia objected to using the term "maladministration" because it was too vague. Stonemason and then substituted "other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" in add-on to treason and bribery. The term "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" was a technical term—again borrowed from British legal practice—that denoted crimes past public officials against the government. Mason'south revision was accustomed without further debate. Merely subsequent experience demonstrated the revised phrase failed to clarify what constituted impeachable offenses.

/tiles/non-drove/i/i_origins_impeachment_watergatetapes_PA2019_12_0027.xml Collection of the U.Due south. House of Representatives
About this object In 1974, presidential impeachment was closely followed by the printing, the public, and the Business firm itself.

The House's Role

The Business firm brings impeachment charges against federal officials equally office of its oversight and investigatory responsibilities. Individual Members of the House tin can innovate impeachment resolutions like ordinary bills, or the House could initiate proceedings past passing a resolution authorizing an enquiry. The Committee on the Judiciary ordinarily has jurisdiction over impeachments, but special committees investigated charges before the Judiciary Committee was created in 1813. The commission and then chooses whether to pursue manufactures of impeachment against the accused official and written report them to the full Business firm. If the manufactures are adopted (by simple majority vote), the House appoints Members by resolution to manage the ensuing Senate trial on its behalf. These managers deed as prosecutors in the Senate and are usually members of the Judiciary Committee. The number of managers has varied across impeachment trials simply has traditionally been an odd number. The partisan limerick of managers has also varied depending on the nature of the impeachment, simply the managers, by definition, always support the House'due south impeachment action.

The Employ of Impeachment

The House has initiated impeachment proceedings more than than 60 times but less than a third have led to total impeachments. Just eight—all federal judges—have been bedevilled and removed from part by the Senate. Outside of the 15 federal judges impeached past the House, three Presidents [Andrew Johnson in 1868, William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton in 1998, and Donald J. Trump in 2022 and 2021], a cabinet secretary (William Belknap in 1876), and a U.South. Senator (William Blount of Tennessee in 1797) have also been impeached. In only three instances—all involving removed federal judges—has the Senate taken the additional step of disallowment them from always holding hereafter federal part.

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 accordingly, they could simply exist removed from office past a 2-thirds vote for expulsion by their respective chambers. Blount, who had been defendant of instigating an insurrection of American Indians to farther British interests in Florida, was not convicted, but the Senate did expel him. Other impeachments take featured judges taking the bench when drunkard 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's acquittal firmly set the precedent—debated from the beginning of the nation—that the President may remove appointees even if they required Senate confirmation to hold part.

For Further 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 E. The Age of Impeachment: American Ramble Culture Since 1960. (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2008).

Les Benedict, Michael. The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson. (New York: West.W. 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 Example of Senator William Blount. (Macon, Georgia: Mercer Academy Press, 1998).

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

"Report by the Staff of the Impeachment Inquiry on the Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment," Commission Impress, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House 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 Business firm Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents, and Procedures of the House. (Washington, D.C.: Regime Printing Function, 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/