Senate’s Role in Impeachments

“One legislator accused me of having a 19th century attitude on law and order. That is a totally false charge. I have an 18th century attitude. That is when the Founding Fathers made it clear that the safety of law-abiding citizens should be one of government’s primary concerns.”
Ronald Reagan –Address to the Republican State Central Committee Convention, San Diego, September 7, 1973

“The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on an oath of 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.” US Constitution Article 1, Section 3 Clause 6

Impeachment means to charge a public figure formally with misconduct in office. In order for a public official to be removed from office, two steps must occur. First, the House of Representatives must impeach (accuse the elected official of a crime {i.e. treason, bribery, perjury, obstruction of justice, etc.}) and then the Senate must convict the person and vote to remove the elected official from office. For further discussion of impeachment, please see the post “The Speaker of the House” from March 6, 2013.

In the Senate, the elected official who was charged with a crime will have a trial. The Senate will pass judgment. The Senators will take an oath of affirmation. The Vice President will preside as President of the Senate, unless the person being tried is the President of the United States. In that case, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will preside. This allowance was made initially to prevent a situation where the Vice President was presiding over a trial where the outcome could make him President. In more “modern” times, it prevents the Vice President, who would probably be sympathetic to the President on trial, from limiting the independence of the Senate in deciding such an important issue.

During impeachment trials, the Constitution requires that two-thirds of the Senate members be present. This indicates the importance of this vote. On other issues, the decision of the Senate may require two-thirds of the votes cast by the members who are present.

With Clause 6, we the people give the Senate the power to decide if elected officials have violated the trust of the people.

The benefit to us is that we should get serious, mature, and firm judgment from the Senate members. Additionally, we have the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as an unbiased Judge when the President of the United States stands accused.

“Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to remove from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States; but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment, and Punishment, according to law.” US Constitution, Article 1, Section 3, Clause 7

This clause limits the penalties that the Senate may impose if they find the person guilty of a crime against the people. The Senate may remove the elected official from office and prevent that person from holding public office in the future.

The person who is convicted, however, may still be indicted, given a trial and punishment under civil or criminal law.

We the people give the Senate limitations on the sanctions that can be imposed on the person found guilty of a crime against the people.

The benefit to us is that elected officials are protected from severe punishments until their case is tried in the established courts.

References:

Findlay, Bruce Allyn and Findlay, Esther Blair. Your Rugged Constitution. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1950

Hannaford, Peter. The Quotable Ronald Reagan. Washington, DC: Regnery Press, 1998

US Constitution

Wikipedia.org

The Speaker of the House

Two important elements of our government are presented in Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5 of the US Constitution. These are the role of the Speaker of the House and impeachment.

“The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers; and shall have sole power of impeachment.” US Constitution Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE

The Speaker of the House performs an important role. He/She presides over all meetings of the House. Traditionally, the Speaker is the leader of the majority party. The majority party is the party that has the most members in the House. Additionally, the Speaker is a member of Congress and as such has a group of people in his congressional district that he represents (constituents). Another remarkable fact is that the Speaker is second in line for the Presidency after the vice president. (The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 established this order)

In the role of presiding over the House of Representatives, the Speaker administers the oath of office to Members, calls the House to order, keeps order during sessions, recognizes who may speak, and rules on procedure and protocol in the House.

The Speaker will often delegate these roles to other members of the House. When another member presides in the Speaker’s place, this person is called the Speaker pro tempore.

The Speaker also appoints members and chairpersons of the various committees. Additionally the Speaker sets the legislative agenda while working with the leadership, committee chairpersons, the Senate, and the president. This is where it is decided what legislation will be discussed in that particular session.

The Speaker also presides over joint sessions of Congress, since these meetings are usually held in the House of Representatives. You have probably seen the Speaker of the House sitting with the Vice President behind the President when the State of the Union Message is delivered.

In the role of the leader of the majority party, the Speaker is held responsible for passing legislation supported by the majority party. Remember that the people in an election held every two years choose the majority party. The people have indicated by their vote that the majority of the people favor the proposals of this party at the time that they elected them.

In the role of a member of Congress, the Speaker promotes the ideas from his congressional district, is aware of the needs of his constituents, votes on legislation and keeps in contact with the people he represents through meetings and electronic and print media.

For a list of people who have served as Speaker of the House, please see: http://history.house.gov/People/Office/Speakers/

Concerning the consent of the governed, we give authority to the House of Representatives to chose the Speaker and other leadership in the House. The benefit to us is that “We the people” get a leader who is able to preside over the House, lead the majority party, and continue the role of member of Congress. Additionally, this person is considered qualified to lead the nation should the President and Vice President be unable to do so.

IMPEACHMENT

The House of Representatives has the sole power of impeachment.  Impeachment means to charge a public figure formally with misconduct in office. In order for a public official to be removed from office, two steps must occur. First, the House of Representatives must impeach (accuse the elected official of a crime {i.e. treason, bribery, perjury, obstruction of justice, etc.}) and then the Senate must convict the person and vote to remove the elected official from office.

To summarize this information, the House of Representatives, directly elected by you, can bring charges against a government official when that person has abused the trust you placed in him/her.

We will look at the Senate’s role in more detail in a future post.

An example of impeachment in recent history is that of President William J. Clinton. This occurred in December of 1998. Please see this link for details if you wish.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-clinton-impeached

In the case of President Clinton, the House charged him with perjury (lying under oath to a federal grand jury) and obstruction of justice. The Senate voted to not bring these charges against him and thus remove him from office. Seventeen votes in the Senate prevented him from being removed from office. The media presents the impeachment of President Clinton as being due to sexual misconduct. This is not the case. To state the charges in the terms the media uses makes the whole procedure look frivolous. I would observe that the procedure was politically driven, but the charges were serious and demonstrated a betrayal of trust with the American people.

It seems that President Clinton took the charges seriously in that about two hours after his acquittal, he made a brief appearance in the White House Rose Garden and stated: ”Now that the Senate has fulfilled its constitutional responsibility, bringing this process to a conclusion, I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people.”

In the role of impeachment, we give the House of Representatives the responsibility to oversee the behavior of high-ranking officials. We also give them the power to accuse the officials if they betray our trust.

The benefit to us is that we have a form of protection against officials who may be dishonest and/or perform other criminal actions against the people.

References:

Findlay, Bruce Allyn and Findlay, Esther Blair. Your Rugged Constitution. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1950

Webster’s Dictionary for Students

US Constitution

Dummies.com (What is the Role of the Speaker of the House?)