With the second impeachment of President Donald Trump in the news, many people diverge on the issue without knowing what impeachment means for our country and its future.
According to NBC, the House voted on party lines to impeach President Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of justice on December 18, 2019 and was found not guilty by the Senate on party lines. He was impeached a second time on Jan. 13, 2021. Ten Republicans threw a curveball into the process by voting for impeachment according to the New York Times. This departed from previous presidential impeachments; only five members of Bill Clinton’s party voted to impeach him in 1998 and no members of Andrew Johnson’s party voted to impeach him in 1868 according to Politico.
This impeachment is unprecedented because, in addition to it being the second impeachment of the same president, it has also occurred immediately prior to the President leaving office. Since Trump has already left office, this means that the consequences can’t include the typical removal from office.
The framers of the Constitution introduced impeachment as a way to continue the system of checks and balances ingrained in our government. It is a tool that can be used to prevent dictatorship by the executive branch, but not powerful enough to create an oligarchy in the legislative branch. It also checks the judicial branch because federal judges are the most frequently impeached.
The impeachment process has been started by the House over 60 times, at an increasing rate over the last 30 years, with only 21 reaching the Senate and eight leading to full impeachments (four resulted in resignations and the current impeachment is not determined) according to the House and Senate websites.
Impeachment can be described in various ways. Freshman Leila Rexhepi said, “Impeachment is when a federal official gets charged with a crime that can lead to his/her/their removal of which seat they hold,” while Senior Kevin Katauskas said that impeachment is, “the accusation and trial of a government figure.” Both of their descriptions are accurate. To find out more about what impeachment is, we turn to the Constitution:
According to article two, section four of the United States Constitution impeachment is when “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.”
Though grounds for impeachment may seem clear, it is hard to tell what qualifies for the “other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” category. According to the United States Senate website, the impeachment cases taken to the Senate have ranged from violating a Congressional act, like in the case of President Andrew Johnson in 1868, to taking advantage of office, like in the case of Federal Judge Harold Louderback of California in 1933.
This means that impeachment is a hard process to argue for or against if the crime is not treason or bribery. It could come down to party lines for undecided voters and this means that after passing the House, the two-thirds majority will be nearly impossible to find in the Senate.
With the actual cause of an impeachment case being very debatable, here are the perspectives of some students on what a government official would have to do to get impeached:
Senior Emma Held said that the official would have to, “break a law to warrant jail time.” Senior Noor Khankan said that they would have to, “commit a crime to obtain the office they hold or while they hold said office.” Freshman Kevin Hackiewicz said, “Nothing, impeachment shouldn’t exist.”
The consequences of impeachment, however, are laid out more clearly in the Constitution. “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 Law,” according to the transcript in article 1 section 3.
This means that even after removal from office, the person could have their pension and ability to hold other offices taken away by a majority vote. They could also be tried for violating the law in a criminal court and could be sued in a civil court. Senior Emma Held points out that the consequences are, “nothing really, without the Senate trial.”
The process of impeachment is more well-known and is designed to allow both houses of Congress to have input in the impeachment process. First, an impeachment bill is introduced onto the floor of the House, where it is then investigated by the Judiciary Committee to see if it warrants further investigation. If so, the committee introduces it for a vote based on the majority according to the House website.
The process picks up in the Senate which acts like a court, where the Chief Justice presides in case of Presidential impeachment trials. The Judiciary Committee presents evidence, witnesses present their testimonies, and at the end of the trial if the defendant is voted guilty by a two-thirds majority. At that point, a simple majority vote is sufficient to remove them from office or to apply any of the other consequences according to the Senate website.
After this is all done, what is the country left with? The official next in the line of succession is placed in the position or a new candidate is found, but the consequences could go much deeper than the ones voted on by the Senate.
The process could become normalized by its frequent occurrences in recent years and could serve to divide our nation according to some students.
Impeachment was a tool designed to be a way for the people to check their representatives, a way to preserve democracy in the United States and if used properly could be about more than just party lines.