Transcript When Presidents Go Bad: - University of San Diego Home Pages

When Presidents Go Bad:
Investigations and Impeachments
as checks against presidential power
Today…
• Origins of impeachment
• Grounds for impeachment
• 3 cases of impeachment
Impeachment in the Constitution
• The House of Representatives shall chuse their
Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole
Power of Impeachment. (I:2)
• 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. (I:3)
Grounds for Impeachment
• 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. (II:4)
What are high crimes and misdemeanors?
“Impeachment of a president should be
resorted to only for cases of the gravest
kind—the commission of a crime named in
the Constitution or a criminal offense
against the laws of the United States.”
--argument made by Nixon’s lawyers
What are high crimes and
misdemeanors?
“Impeachment conduct…may include the serious
failure to discharge the affirmative duties imposed
on the president by the Constitution. Unlike a
criminal case, the cause for removal…may be
based on his entire course of conduct in
office…more than individual acts. …Impeachment
was evolved to cope with both the inadequacy of
criminal standards and the impotence of the courts
to deal with the conduct of great public figures.”
--1974 Staff report of the House Judiciary Committee
What are high crimes and misdemeanors?
“An impeachable offense is whatever a
majority of the House of Representatives
considers it to be at a given moment in
history; conviction results from whatever
offense or offenses two-thirds of the other
body considers to be sufficiently serious to
require removal of the accused from office.”
» Rep. Gerald Ford, 1970
Three impeachment efforts