The Federal Impeachment Process: A Constitutional and Historical Analysis.

• Author: Baer, Jr., Harold

The Federal Impeachment Process--A Constitutional and Historical Analysis. By Michael J. Gerhardt. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 1996. Pp. 23.3. $29.95.

U.S. CONSTITUTION(1)

ARTICLE I

Section. 2. ... The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker

and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.(2)

Section. 3. ... 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.(3)

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to

removal 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 the Law.(4)

ARTICLE II

Section. 2.... [The President] shall have Power to grant Reprieves

and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases

of Impeachment.(5)

Section. 4. 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.(6)

While a slender volume, The Federal Impeachment Process(7) offers the reader a variety of different insights on this topic, beginning with the debates at the Constitutional Convention and running to the modem-day practice of impeachment trials by committee rather than by the full senate. Impeachment is valuable reading, not just for those of us interested in American history, or those of us who are public officers of the United States, but for every American who wants to understand his or her morning newspaper better. Not only does it lift the veil of darkness, surrounding the impeachment process, it provides a focus for the perceptions of all those who are concerned over the recent spate of impeachment threats.(8)

As Professor Gerhardt(9) notes at the outset, impeachment was not a major consideration at the Constitutional Convention. The most prominent ratification document discussing the federal impeachment process -- and, of course, a series of other issues -- was The Federalist Papers (p. 12). The Federalist Papers provided an overview of the model replicated by the convention -- and the model, it turns out, follows the impeachment procedures adopted by the most populous states. The model has an unmistakable theme often overlooked by some in Congress today, to say nothing of President Clinton: that impeachment is an appropriate remedy only where a public officer has committed a criminal act while in office. Furthermore, the view of the Framers was that removal from office and disqualification from holding future public office was to be the only punishment. This is quite different from the pattern in England at the time, where not only were private citizens subject to impeachment, but criminal penalties could and would be imposed and by a bare majority of the House of Lords. Clearly the Framers sought a uniquely American variation of the impeachment process (pp. 4-5).

Professor Gerhardt has a writing style that enables the reader to feel that he is sitting at a desk just behind the delegates, absorbing the debate. He describes, in some detail each of the various plans that were put forth at the convention.

While the plans differed in several ways, the wrongdoing that would constitute an impeachable offense was probably the most diverse and included, at one time or another, malpractice, neglect of duty, malversation and corruption before reaching, by an eight-to-three vote, the language, "bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors." The author fails to note how treason crept into the final language. He does note, however that it was not until August 1789 that a report was published advocating that the House of Representatives should have the sole power to impeach. Interestingly, even at...