Impeachment

3 Pages 778 Words

Impeachment is the process in which Congress takes to begin to remove a President, Vice President or any other civil officer from office. Impeachment was included in our Constitution by the ingenious framers to protect our country from leadership that had become dangerous. The process is spelled out in the Constitution, but a grey area makes it unfair to the accused.
Article I, Section 2 states the House of Representatives shall have the “sole power of impeachment.” Article I, Section 3 states “the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments”, if a president is being tried “the Chief Justice shall preside”, and “no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.” Article II, Section 4 states “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.” The process is technically eight steps where the House acts as a grand jury and the Senate conducts the trial as judge and jury. First, a resolution or inquiry of impeachment is referred to the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives. The Judiciary Committee then votes on a resolution of inquiry stating whether there is enough evidence for impeachment or not. The whole House would vote next to authorize a Judiciary Committee decision to proceed to a full-blown impeachment hearing. The Judiciary Committee then would hold hearings into the accusations. The committee votes on one or more bills of impeachment and would issue a report to the House that states the articles of impeachment. The House would vote on the article or articles of impeachment. A simple majority vote would send the case to the Senate and the accused would be considered impeached. Next in a trial conducted on the Senate floor, the House Judiciary Committee would bring the case against th...