Impeachment
Definition
• A formal accusation of a federal official
by a simple majority vote of the House of
Representatives. Impeachment is the first
step in a two-stage process: it is followed
by a trial by the Senate in which a 2/3
majority is required for conviction. If
convicted, the federal official is removed
from office.
House of Representatives
• Impeachment is the exclusive power of the
HoR.
• Can formally accuse any member of the
executive and judicial branches of the federal
government.
• Accusation only needs a simple majority in the
HoR to be passed onto the Senate to be tried.
• HoR has used impeachment 19 times since
1789.
Senate
• Senate has the power to try a case of
impeachment once the HoR have successfully
accused someone by a simple majority.
• Trial is to determine whether someone is
guilty of the offence brought forward by the
House.
• A 2/3 majority is needed for the person to be
removed from office.
Andrew Johnson (1868)
• 17th President - Democrat
• 1st President to be
impeached, by Conservative
dominated Congress
• After Civil War, his plan was
to quickly restore seceded
states to the Union, but in
doing so, he did not protect
the rights of former slaves.
• Acquitted in the Senate by 1
vote.
Bill Clinton (1998)
• 42nd President (Democrat)
• 2nd President to formally be
impeached
• Over affair scandal with
White House intern Monica
Lewinsky
• HoR passed impeachment
on two articles of: Perjury
(228-206) and obstruction
of justice (221-212)
• Senate found him not guilty
on both articles by 45-55 on
perjury and 50-50 on
obstruction of justice
Thomas Porteous (2010)
• Federal Judge – East
district of Louisiana
• Successfully impeached in
the House on four
separate articles
• Petrous repeatedly
committed perjury by
signing false financial
disclosure forms under
oath
• Senate upheld
prosecution on all four
counts.
Threat can be enough
• Executive
• President Richard Nixon
in 1974 resigned from
the office of the
president rather than
be almost certainly
impeached by the HoR
and convicted in the
Senate over the
Watergate scandal.
• Judiciary
• No Supreme Court
Justice has ever been
impeached but…
• Associate Justice Abe
Fortas resigned from
the SC in 1968 rather
than face impeachment
which was almost
certain.