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Impeachment
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Impeachment is a fundamental constitutional power belonging to Congress. This safeguard against corruption can be initiated against federal officeholders from the lowest cabinet member all the way up to the president and the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Besides providing the authority for impeachment, the U.S. Constitution details the methods to be used. The two-stage process begins in the House of Representatives with a public inquiry into allegations, and culminates, if necessary, with a trial in the Senate. State constitutions model impeachment processes for state officials on this approach. At both the federal and state levels, impeachment is rare: from the passage of the Constitution to the mid-1990s, only fifty impeachment proceedings were initiated, and only a third of these went as far as a trial in the Senate.
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Impeachment of federal officials has been a rare occurrence in American history. Except for judges, who cannot be voted out of office, politicians and the public have preferred to remove inept or unfit leaders through elections. Frequent impeachments of elected officials would transform America’s constitutional system into something more akin to a parliamentary one, where a vote of no confidence brings down an elected chief executive.
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Impeachment has its origins in English law but fell out of use in the 18th century. It exists under constitutional law in many nations around the world, including the United States, Russia, the Philippines and the Republic of Ireland.
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Impeachment originated in the English Parliament during the 14th century. It was used to punish royal ministers accused of misconduct, and to hold the king’s ministers accountable to Parliament. The House of Lords initially exercised the exclusive right of impeachment. In 1376 impeachment became the responsibility of the House of Commons, with the House of Lords maintaining the right to try the accused officeholder. The last British official to be removed as a result of impeachment proceedings was convicted in 1806. The American colonies inherited English traditions of impeachment, but modified them to discourage their use as a means of political warfare.
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Impeachment is not often pursued. President Andrew Johnson was nearly impeached as a result of a bitter struggle in 1868 between his exercise of executive power and congressional will. He escaped an impeachment conviction in the Senate by a single vote. In 1974, President Richard M. Nixon, embroiled in the Watergate scandal, resigned rather than face almost certain impeachment. The House Judiciary Committee had recommended that the full House take up three articles of impeachment against Nixon: obstruction of justice, abuse of constitutional authority, and refusal to answer the committee's subpoenas.
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Impeachment is so rare that the term can be misunderstood. A typical misconception is to confuse it with involuntary removal from office; in fact, it is only a legal statement of charges, paralleling an indictment in criminal law. An official who is impeached faces a second legislative vote (whether by the same body or another), which determines conviction, or failure to convict, on the charges embodied by the impeachment. Most constitutions require a supermajority to convict. The word "impeachment" derives from Latin roots expressing the idea of becoming caught or entrapped, and has analogues in the modern French verb empêcher (to prevent) and the modern English impede. Medieval popular etymology ... associated it (wrongly) with derivations from the Latin impetere (to attack).
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Impeachment