Impeachment Clauses

Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5

The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

Article 1, Section 3, Clauses 6 and 7

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.

Judgement in Cases of Impreachment 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, Judgement and Punishment, according to Law.

Article 2, 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.

Article 3, Section 1

. . . The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour. . . .

1.Jefferson's Manual of Parliamentary Practice and Rules of the House of Representatives, sec. 53
2.North Carolina Constitution of 1776, ART. 23
3.Delaware Constitution of 1776, ART. 23
4.Virginia Constitution of 1776
5.New York Constitution of 1777, ARTS. 32--34
6.Vermont Constitution of 1777, CH. 2, SEC. 20
7.Records of the Federal Convention
8.Luther Martin, Genuine Information, 1788
9.Alexander Hamilton, Federalist, no. 65, 439--45, 7 March 1788
10.Alexander Hamilton, Federalist, no. 66, 445--51, 8 March 1788
11.Brutus, no. 15, 20 Mar. 1788
12.A Native of Virginia, Observations upon the Proposed Plan of Federal Government, 1788
13.Debate in North Carolina Ratifying Convention, 24--25, 28 July 1788
14.James Madison, Observations on Jefferson's Draft of a Constitution for Virginia, 15 Oct. 1788
15.James Wilson, Legislative Department, Lectures on Law, 1791
16.Luther Martin, Impeachment Trial of Justice Samuel Chase, Senate, 23 Feb. 1804
17.William Rawle, A View of the Constitution of the United States 210--19 1829 (2d ed.)
18.Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution 2:§§ 758--69, 771--78, 780--803, 810--11, 1833