The Constitution further provides that all civil officers of the United States may be impeached. Joseph Story , in his Commentaries on the Constitution , wrote that "all officers of the United States, therefore, who hold their appointments under the national government, whether their duties are executive or judicial, in the highest or in the lowest departments of the government, with the exception of officers in the army and navy, are properly civil officers within the meaning of the constitution, and liable to impeachment.
The Constitution, in the Appointments Clause , provides the president with the power to appoint officers of the United States which are subject to Senate confirmation and distinguishes these officials from those inferior officers that the Congress may, by law, grant the president the sole power to appoint i. The U. Supreme Court further recognized the distinction in the two categories under the appointments clause, categorizing these as principal officers and inferior officers respectively, in Edmond v.
United States. In Buckley v. Valeo , the court defined an officer as "any appointee exercising significant authority pursuant to the laws of the United States. Therefore, as Cole and Garvey note, [1]. Any official exercising 'significant authority' including both principal and inferior officers, would therefore qualify as a 'civil Officer' subject to impeachment.
This view would permit Congress to impeach and remove any executive branch 'officer,' including many deputy political appointees and certain administrative judges.
William Blount of Tennessee was the first individual ever impeached by the United States House of Representatives and, to this day, is the only member of Congress ever to have been impeached. The House impeached Blount on July 7, , for allegedly conspiring to incite Native Americans and frontiersmen to attack the Spanish lands of Florida and Louisiana in order to give them to England.
After the impeachment vote in the House, but before Blount's impeachment trial in the Senate, the Senate voted to expel Blount under provisions of Article I, Section 5 of the United States Constitution.
Due to a lack of jurisdiction in Tennessee , where Blount fled after his conviction, the Senate could not extradite Blount for his impeachment trial. Two years later, in , the Senate determined that Blount was not a civil officer under the definition of the Constitution and, therefore, could not be impeached. The Senate dismissed the charges against Blount for lack of jurisdiction. Since , the House has not impeached another member of Congress. On February 24, , President Andrew Johnson became the first sitting president to be impeached.
Following Congress' passage of the Tenure of Office Act, forbidding the president from removing federal officials without the approval of Congress, Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and replaced him with Ulysses S. Johnson hoped to challenge the constitutionality of the Act.
The House charged him with violating the Act and passed an impeachment resolution Johnson was acquitted by the Senate on May 16, , by a vote of , one vote short of two-thirds. Seven Republican senators broke ranks with the party to prevent Johnson's conviction. President William Jefferson Clinton , the second president to be impeached, was charged by the U.
House on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice on December 19, The first article of impeachment for perjury passed the House by a vote of , while the second vote on obstruction of justice passed by House Republicans accused Clinton of lying and having others lie, hiding the affair.
Two other charges, perjury in regards to an affair with Paula Jones and abuse of power, were rejected by the House. The perjury charge failed by a vote of while the obstruction of justice charge failed on a tied vote of Donald Trump was the third president to be impeached. He was impeached first in and a second time in On December 18, , the U. House charged Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The first article passed by a vote of and the second On February 5, , the Senate acquitted him of abuse of power by a vote and of obstruction of Congress by a vote. On January 13, , the House voted to impeach Trump for incitement of insurrection related to the January 6 Capitol breach during electoral vote counting. On February 13, —after Trump had left office as a result of the presidential election —the Senate acquitted Trump.
A two-thirds vote was required to convict. Fifty-seven senators voted to convict, and 43 voted to acquit. Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached on March 2, , on charges of "criminally disregarding his duty as Secretary of War and basely prostituting his high office to his lust for private gain. Grant resignation papers earlier that day, and he stood trial before the Senate as a former government official, as agreed to by the Senate. He was acquitted of all charges on August 1, Following the trial, the Senate agreed not to hold trials for government officials who offered resignation.
The table below presents a list of federal judges who have been impeached in the U. Of the 15 federal judges that have been impeached, eight have been convicted and removed from office by the U. Ballotpedia features , encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. 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 agenda 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 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 Chief 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 state. But subsequent experience demonstrated the revised phrase failed to clarify what constituted impeachable offenses.
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 House could initiate proceedings by 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 The committee then chooses whether to pursue articles of impeachment against the accused official and report them to the full House.
If the articles are adopted by simple majority vote , the House appoints Members by resolution to manage the ensuing Senate trial on its behalf. These managers act as prosecutors in the Senate and are usually members of the Judiciary Committee.
The number of managers has varied across impeachment trials but has traditionally been an odd number. The House has initiated impeachment proceedings more than 60 times but less than a third have led to full impeachments. Just eight—all federal judges—have been convicted and removed from office by the Senate. Trump in and ], a cabinet secretary William Belknap in , and a U. Senator William Blount of Tennessee in have also been impeached. In only three instances—all involving removed federal judges—has the Senate taken the additional step of barring them from ever holding future federal office.
The officer subject to an impeachment proceeding has no appeal to a federal court. Article 1, Section 3, Clause 7 -- "Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.
An impeachment and removal does not activate the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment. The ex-officer may face criminal indictments and trials for the same conduct that led to their impeachment and removal from office. Please help us improve our site! No thank you. LII Wex Impeachment. Impeachment Primary tabs What is Impeachment? The Judiciary Committee adopts a resolution seeking authority from the entire House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry.
Before voting, the House debates and considers the resolution. Approval requires a majority vote. The Judiciary Committee conducts an impeachment inquiry, possibly through public hearings. At the conclusion of the inquiry, articles of impeachment are prepared. They must be approved by a majority of the Committee. The House of Representatives considers and debates the articles of impeachment.
A majority vote of the entire House is required to pass each article. Once an article is approved, the President is, technically speaking, "impeached" -- that is subject to trial in the Senate. The Senate holds trial on the articles of impeachment approved by the House. At the conclusion of the trial, the Senate votes on whether to remove the President from office.
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