The rancorous 2016 presidential election in the United States generated a lot of partisanship on both sides. During the election, actor George Takei, a committed Democrat, frequently tweeted humorous barbs at Republican Donald J. Trump.
In one biting recent exchange, George Takei discovered a tweet made by the current President-Elect back in June of 2014. The online comment occurred roughly a year before the New York real estate mogul entered the race for the White House. Referring to President Obama, Donald Trump had rhetorically wondered whether Americans could impeach a sitting U.S. President for “incompetence”? Mr. Takei issued an acerbic reply to that tweet on December 3rd of this year. He surmised everyone would be “finding out soon, Donald”.
Of course, the issue of impeachment relates to a provision in the United States Constitution. This document specifies in Article II, Section 4 that the President, the Vice President, and all civil office holders could suffer removal from office upon impeachement after sustaining a conviction for crimes such as treason, bribery or “other high crimes and misdemeanors”. Fortunately for Presidents of the United States perhaps, incompetence per se does not furnish grounds for such a severe sanction.
Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution invests the House of Representatives with the sole power of impeachment. If this dire event occurs, Article I, Section 3 gives the Senate the sole power to try the impeachment case. Essentially, the Senate determines whether or not a civil office holder will lose an elected position after issuance of impeachment articles. Charges of impeachment levied by the House of Representatives against a sitting President proceed to a trial in the Senate presided over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. A conviction requires the concurrence of two thirds of the Senators in attendance. Although a convicted office holder may suffer indictment and criminal proceedings in accordance with federal laws, the Senate can only remove an impeached individual from office and bar the office holder from qualifying for future federal honors or positions.
Since federal judges qualify as “civil officers” under the constitutional definition, in the past some of these individuals have suffered impeachment. Ballotpedia reports during its long history, the House of Representatives has impeached 15 federal judges, beginning with one of President George Washington’s appointees, John Pickering. The United States Senate convicted Judge Pickering of mental instability and intoxication from the bench on March 12, 1804 and removed him from office. Of the 15 impeached federal judges, eight suffered conviction, four obtained acquittal in the Senate and three decided to resign from their positions prior to the conclusion of their Senate trials.
Some Presidents have come dangerously close to removal in the past. Unpopular pro-slavery President John Tyler narrowly avoided impeachment in the House of Representatives on January 10, 1843, when members rejected a resolution of impeachment by a 127 to 83 vote. The House passed an impeachment resolution against President Lincoln’s successor, President Andrew Johnson, but the Senate acquitted him from removal from office by a single vote. President Richard Nixon resigned from office in the wake of the Watergate scandals in August, 1974 rather than face a likely impeachment vote in the House of Representatives. The House impeached President Bill Clinton in 1998 on charges stemming from personal impropriety while in office, but the Senate acquitted him of charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in 1999, allowing him to complete his second term in office.