Time: Sun Mar 16 07:35:41 1997
by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id GAA18222;
Sun, 16 Mar 1997 06:48:11 -0700 (MST)
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 07:24:04 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: SNET: Impeachment proceedings (fwd)
<snip>
>http://intl.grolier.com:80/presidents/aae/side/impeach.html
>
>IMPEACHMENT
>
>Impeachment is the first step in the process specified in the CONSTITUTION
>OF THE UNITED STATES for removing the PRESIDENT, VICE-PRESIDENT, or other
>government official from office upon conviction of "treason, bribery, or
>other high crimes and misdemeanors." The HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES has "the
>sole power of impeachment," that is, the power of bringing charges. The
>SENATE has "the sole power to try all impeachments." A two-thirds vote is
>required in the Senate for conviction. When the president is to be tried,
>the chief justice of the United States presides. A conviction in an
>impeachment proceeding results only in removal from office and
>disqualification to hold "any office of honor, trust, or profit under the
>United States." A person convicted in an impeachment, however, is subject
>to further "indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to Law."
>Impeachment originated in England, where the House of Commons would present
>articles of impeachment to the House of Lords, which then tried the case. A
>well-known instance was the impeachment and trial (1786-95) of Warren
>Hastings, first governor general of India.
>
>The framers of the U. S. Constitution, although committed to a separation
>of powers and independence of the three branches of government from one
>another, believed that a means must be provided by which officers thought
>to be guilty of significant misconduct could be tried and removed. They did
>not want the procedure to be overly simple to invoke, nor the penalty too
>easily imposed--hence, the requirements of the two-thirds vote for
>conviction in the Senate, and the stipulation that impeachment before
>"treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeandors." To George
>Mason's suggestion that "maladministration" be a ground for impeachment,
>both James MADISON and Gouverneur Morris objected that so vague a term
>would surely produce the result that tenure in office would be at the
>pleasure of the Senate.
>
>Since the adoption of the Constitution, only one president, Andrew JOHNSON
>(1868), has been brought to trial in the Senate on charges voted by the
>House. The senate failed by one vote to convict Johnson. In 1974 the House
>Judiciary Committee voted three charges of impeachment against President
>Richard M. NIXON (see WATERGATE), but he resigned from office before the
>charges could be voted upon by the House.
>
>Impeachment proceedings have been brought with some frequency against
>federal judges. In 1804, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase was impeached
>on purely political grounds, but his acquittal (1805) effectively halted
>the use of impeachment to remove judges for political reasons. It has often
>been said that the cumbersome and time-consuming process of impeachment is
>unsuited to the removal of a merely venal judge. Nevertheless, because the
>Constitution specifies that judges hold office during good behavior,
>impeachment remains the only means by which a federal judge may be removed.
>
>Certain questions concerning the impeachment process have persisted:
>whether it is judicial or political in nature; how to define high crimes
>and misdemeanors; and whether a conviction can be appealed to the Supreme
>Court. Although no conclusive answer can be given, it is safe to say that
>the judicial process of impeachment will always be infused with political
>motives; that the definition of high crimes and misdemeanors will never
>become entire precise; and that once the Senate has voted to convict by a
>two-thirds majority, the Supreme Court is unlikely to take jurisdiction.
>
>Valerie A. Earle
>
>For Further Reading
>
>Berger, Raoul, Impeachment: The Constitutional Problem (1973) Hoffer, P.
>C., and Hull, N. E., Impeachment in America, 1635 to 1805 (1984) Labovitz,
>John R., Presidential Impeachment (1978) Rehnquist, William H., Grand
>Inquests (1992) Smith, Gene, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Impeachment
>and Trial of Andrew Johnson (1976)
========================================================================
Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S. : Counselor at Law, federal witness
email: [address in tool bar] : Eudora Pro 3.0.1 on Intel 586 CPU
web site: http://www.supremelaw.com : library & law school registration
ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best
Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone
Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this
========================================================================
Return to Table of Contents for
Supreme Law School: E-mail