Is a President Is Impeached in the House in His First Term Can He Be Elected 2 More Times
"The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United states of america, shall be removed from Function on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
— U.Due south. Constitution, Commodity II, section four
The Constitution gives the Firm 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 express to removal from function just also provides a means past which a removed officer may be disqualified from belongings futurity office. Fines and potential jail time for crimes committed while in role are left to civil courts.
Origins
Impeachment comes from British constitutional history. The procedure evolved from the 14th century as a fashion for parliament to hold the king'due south ministers answerable for their public actions. Impeachment, equally Alexander Hamilton of New York explained in Federalist 65, varies from ceremonious 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." Private country constitutions had provided for impeachment for "maladministration" or "corruption" before the U.South. Constitution was written. And the founders, fearing the potential for abuse of executive power, considered impeachment and so important that they fabricated information technology part of the Constitution even before they defined 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 process 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 hold his identify for a express term like the members of the Legislature," King said, so "he would periodically be tried for his behaviour by his electors." Massachusetts's Elbridge Gerry, however, said impeachment was a way to keep the executive in check: "A good magistrate will not fearfulness [impeachments]. A bad i ought to be kept in fearfulness of them."
Another issue arose regarding whether Congress might lack the resolve to try 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. Again, though, the founders chose to follow the British example, where the House of Commons brought charges confronting 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 Master 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, simply George Mason of Virginia thought those crimes did non include a large number of punishable offenses against the state. James Madison of Virginia objected to using the term "maladministration" considering it was too vague. Mason 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 by public officials against the government. Mason's revision was accepted without farther contend. But subsequent experience demonstrated the revised phrase failed to clarify what constituted impeachable offenses.
The House'southward Office
The Business firm brings impeachment charges confronting federal officials as role of its oversight and investigatory responsibilities. Private Members of the Firm can innovate impeachment resolutions similar ordinary bills, or the House could initiate proceedings by passing a resolution authorizing an inquiry. The Commission on the Judiciary unremarkably 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 against the accused official and report them to the full Firm. If the manufactures are adopted (by simple bulk vote), the House appoints Members past resolution to manage the ensuing Senate trial on its behalf. These managers act equally prosecutors in the Senate and are ordinarily members of the Judiciary Committee. The number of managers has varied across impeachment trials only has traditionally been an odd number. The partisan composition of managers has also varied depending on the nature of the impeachment, but the managers, by definition, always support the Business firm's impeachment action.
The Use of Impeachment
The House has initiated impeachment proceedings more than 60 times simply less than a third take led to full impeachments. Just eight—all federal judges—have been convicted and removed from role past the Senate. Exterior of the 15 federal judges impeached by the House, iii Presidents [Andrew Johnson in 1868, William Jefferson (Nib) Clinton in 1998, and Donald J. Trump in 2022 and 2021], a cabinet secretary (William Belknap in 1876), and a U.S. Senator (William Blount of Tennessee in 1797) have too been impeached. In merely three instances—all involving removed federal judges—has the Senate taken the additional step of barring them from ever holding future federal office.
Blount'south impeachment trial—the first always conducted—established the principle that Members of Congress and Senators were non "Civil Officers" nether the Constitution, and accordingly, they could but be removed from office past a two-thirds vote for expulsion past their corresponding chambers. Blount, who had been accused of instigating an insurrection of American Indians to further British interests in Florida, was not convicted, but the Senate did expel him. Other impeachments have featured judges taking the bench 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 blessing. Johnson's acquittal firmly set up the precedent—debated from the beginning 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. 4 vols. (New Haven and London: Yale University Printing, 1937).
Kyvig, David Eastward. The Age of Impeachment: American Constitutional Civilization 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 Outset Impeachment: The Constitution's Framers and the Case of Senator William Blount. (Macon, Georgia: Mercer Academy Press, 1998).
Rehnquist, William H. Grand Inquests: The Historic Impeachments of Justice Samuel Hunt 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.S. Firm of Representatives, 93rd Cong., 2d sess., February 1974.
Storing, Herbert J., ed. The Complete Anti-Federalist. 7 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981).
Sullivan, John. "Affiliate 27—Impeachment," in House Do: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents, and Procedures of the House. (Washington, D.C.: Regime Printing Office, 2011).
Thomas, David Y. "The Law of Impeachment in the United States," The American Political Science Review 2 (May 1908): 378–395.
Source: https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Impeachment/
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