What Does Impeachment Mean?

While Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution says that Congress can bring charges of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” against high-ranking government officers like the president, impeachment is the official way for them to do it.

If the executive or judicial parts of the government break the law or abuse their power, the power to impeach them is the first step in putting a stop to it. If the House of Representatives accuses the official, they are put on trial, and if found guilty by the Senate, they are removed from office.

How to Remove a President through Impeachment

Part 4 of Article II of the U.S. Constitution reads:

It is against the law for the President, Vice President, and any other civil officer of the United States to remain in office if they are impeached for or found guilty of treason, bribery, or other serious crimes.

It’s important to note that impeachment is not the same as removal or guilt, even though many people think it is. The process of impeachment is like an accusation in a criminal case; it involves charging someone.

No one is ever impeached or removed from office at the federal level. Since the U.S. Constitution was made, the House of Representatives has started impeachment procedures more than 60 times. Out of those processes, only 20 have led to impeachment. The Senate has only found eight people guilty, all federal judges.

In the history of the United States, only Andrew Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump have been impeached by the House of Representatives. The Senate found all three of them not guilty.

Impeachment of Officials

There is a way to remove the president and vice president from office (the Constitution). A lot of people have talked about the question of who “all Civil Officers of the United States” really are.

The 85 essays by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison that make up the Federalist Papers—an essential part of American history—make it clear that impeachment is a way to keep the executive and legal branches of government in check. But the essays don’t say who would be called a civil officer in those branches.

No matter who works for the federal government, the word “civil officers” covers them all. Past events can lead to the impeachment of federal judges, including Supreme Court justices and members of the president’s team. Authorities can punish officers according to the military code, but they cannot impeach Congress members and military officers.
This is because of a standard set in 1799.

Impeachment: How Much is Enough?

At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, there was a lot of discussion about what acts could lead to impeachment. The country’s founders first stated that the president and other officials could remove them through impeachment and conviction for “corrupt conduct” or “malpractice or neglect of duty.” Later, they changed it to “treason, bribery, or corruption,” then to “treason or bribery,” and finally to “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The argument didn’t end there because the words “high crimes and misdemeanors” didn’t clarify what crimes could lead to impeachment. Since the Constitution was signed into law in 1789, lawmakers, lawyers, and legal experts have had trouble deciding what “high crimes and misdemeanors” really mean.

The founders of our country took the phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors” from British law, which meant crimes against the government by public officials. As Representative Gerald Ford put it in 1970, “an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives thinks it is at any given time in history.”

What the House and Senate Do

Part II of Article I of the Constitution says that the House of Representatives is the only body to be removed. But someone who has been ousted cannot be removed by the House. The Senate is in charge of that. They hold a hearing and decide whether to convict and remove or not.

Impeachment starts as soon as the House passes a resolution requesting a House committee to investigate charges against an official. The committee could suggest firing or punishing. The House then chooses by simple majority to keep the articles of impeachment or throw them out.

Once the Senate agrees, the House chooses managers to run the impeachment hearing there. The House then passes a motion telling the Senate about the articles of impeachment and the House managers who will bring the case to the Senate’s attention.

The Senate tells the House when it will get the managers and start the impeachment trial as soon as it gets the resolution. Usually, the president of the Senate leads the Senate as a court. However, if the president faces impeachment, the chief judge of the Supreme Court leads the Senate as a court. To convict and remove someone accused from office, the Senate needs a two-thirds majority.

The Consequences of Impeachment

If someone impeaches you, the Senate must hold a trial for you. If someone gets impeached, they face charges and suffer damage to their image, but there is no additional punishment. As we already discussed, the House of Representatives only needs a simple majority vote for impeachment.

The Constitution states that two-thirds of the Senate’s votes are required to convict someone who has been accused. If they find you guilty, they will remove you from office.

A simple majority vote in the Senate can also remove the official from running for public office. There is no way to challenge a conviction or impeachment because it is a political matter, not a criminal one.

History of the Process for Impeaching the President

Five of the twenty impeachment cases in the United States since 1799 have happened in the last 100 years. There were 15 federal judges, three presidents, one senator, and a cabinet secretary (the secretary of war) removed from office. The Senate found seven of the impeached individuals not guilty, while they found eight guilty, resulting in their removal from office as judges. Additionally, three individuals were fired, and one chose to quit without any further action taken.

As we already discussed, the House has only accused three presidents: Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump. The Senate, however, has never found any evidence against them. There were threats to remove President Richard Nixon from office because of the Watergate incident in 1974, but it never happened. Nixon quit before Congress could decide whether to go ahead with impeachment. He is the only U.S. President who has ever quit.

An Example of Impeachment in Real Life

When the House of Representatives impeached former President Trump on December 18, 2019, there was a recent impeachment trial in the Senate. The motion had two articles of impeachment:

1. Power abuse

This case of “high crimes and misdemeanors” said Trump was trying to get Ukraine to investigate his Democratic political opponents dishonestly. The article passed 230 to 197, with all Republicans in the House voting against it and two Democrats voting against it.

2. Getting in the way of Congress

The obstruction of Congress charge, which was also a “high crimes and misdemeanor,” came from claims that Trump told his staff to ignore all attempts by Congress to get information and testimony about what was going on in Ukraine while the House and Senate were looking into it. This article passed with 229 votes to 198, with one more Democrat joining the Republicans against the charge.

The Senate received the articles of impeachment on January 16, 2020, and conducted a trial. Republican senators opposed subpoenaing witnesses or papers, so they did not send any. On February 5, 2020, they found the president not guilty on both charges.
Article I, about the abuse of power, had 48 votes for finding and 52 for not guilty. On Article II, which deals with obstruction of Congress, 47 people voted to convict, and 53 voted not to convict.

These impeachment proceedings took a little less than two months from beginning to end, not counting the time it took to gather proof. But there isn’t enough time for impeachments, and the Constitution doesn’t say much about them either. Because of this, each trial is different.

Conclusion

• Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution says that impeachment is the official way for Congress. They try to remove high-ranking government servants like the president from office.
• Only the U.S. House of Representatives can impeach a government official; only the Senate can find the official guilty and remove them from office.
• The House has only accused three presidents: Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump. The Senate found none of them guilty.