What is the process of impeachment as given in the Constitution?

Answer 1

Article I. Section 2.

"The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. " [yeah - they really spelled it "chuse"]

Article I. Section 3.

"The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present. "

Article II. Section 4.

"The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. "

The actual process is that the Judiciary committee of the House first holds hearings on whether to initiate an impeachment investigation. Their recommendation is received by the full house and if they vote to initiate the process, the Judiciary committee holds hearings on whether to recommend impeachment. The results of their investigation and recommendation are presented to the full House of Representative which votes on "articles of impeachment". Each "article" states an alleged offense which provides justification for impeachment. The articles must be approved by vote of a majority of the House. This is pretty much equivalent to the process of "indictment" which occurs in criminal courts. Note that the House only need approve one of the articles for impeachment to occur.

Once the articles are approved by the House, they are referred to the Senate which must act on them. They hold hearings of the full body where the person being impeached is tried on the articles. In essence, the Senate is acting like a jury in a criminal case of a court. The House provides the prosecutors; the accused is responsible for their own defense. Members of the Senate submit questions to the Chief Justice which may be asked of either the prosecution or defense. Witnesses may or may not be called, depending on the rules agreed to by the Senate. Conviction does not require a unanimous decision, rather it requires a 2/3 majority. Some judges have been impeached, convicted, and removed from the bench, and two U.S. Presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson (Lincoln's vice-president who assumed the presidency upon Lincoln's assassination) and William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton. Neither was convicted by the Senate.

Andrew Johnson was nowhere near as popular as Lincoln and was from Tennessee - a state which had seceded from the Union to be part of the Confederate States. He frequently clashed with the congress on how harsh to be with the defeated South after the Civil War. Many historians have suggested that the congress was looking hard for an excuse to get rid of him and passed laws intended to force him into actions that could be used by his political enemies to remove him from office. Johnson was impeached on 11 articles. Seven were related to violation of the "Tenure of Office Act" which required permission from congress to dismiss any federal official - including members of the president's own cabinet. Johnson considered the act unconstitutional and vetoed it, but it was passed over his veto. He subsequently dismissed his Secretary of War, Edward Stanton in defiance of the Act. Of the remaining 4 articles, the most significant was for violating a provision of the Army Appropriations Act for 1867-8 that stated the President had to issue all military orders through the General of the Army stationed in Washington, D.C. - which Johnson considered to be in violation of his position as the Commander in Chief. The Senate vote on the first article was 35 to convict and 19 to acquit - one short of the required 2/3 majority. Votes on the second and third articles yielded the same result and the trial ended at that point with a motion to adjourn.

In Bill Clinton's case, the vote was 65-35 to acquit on the charge of perjury and spit 50-50 on the charge of obstruction of justice. 67 votes would have been required to convict.