Impeachment: A Handbook

"Black’s book is the best, concise explanation of the impeachment process. It is clear and insightful. It largely does. Black believed that structure was the important touchstone for understanding the Constitution, and structure is important to the impeachment process. First, the division of authority between the House and Senate is a “safeguard,” as Hamilton wrote, to ensuring there is proper deliberation over the matter. “The impeachment trials of these impeached officials in the Senate demonstrate how hard it is to convict and remove someone” The House may get the ball rolling, but the Senate wields the crucial decision-making power over conviction and removal. The two-thirds threshold for removal invariably works in favor of the impeached official; it is hard to satisfy this threshold, as reflected by the fact of the 19 people impeached by the House, only 8 have been convicted and removed from office. The two presidents thus far impeached (Johnson and Clinton) were both not convicted in the Senate. This is an important question that gets overlooked a lot. During Clinton’s impeachment and the impeachment proceedings conducted thus far against President Trump, we have seen how hard it is to find common ground any longer in impeachment proceedings. The pull of political parties has become so strong that it counts more to the people in Congress and perhaps the public as well than the law of impeachment. Along with the 24-7 news cycle, the defenders of the President have tried to confuse and distract people; they make no legally sound arguments but instead political talking points, which resonate with the President’s core constituents. “As long as a president can keep his party unified in Congress, impeachment is practically impossible” Given how hard it is for there to be a conviction in the Senate, we have to wonder whether impeachment is a meaningful check on presidential misconduct. As long as a president can keep his party unified in Congress, impeachment is practically impossible. That is not how the framers intended for the process to be, but it appears to be how the process has devolved over time. At present, we know what the President said and did, and we know it is clearly impeachable. Trump is not so much on trial as the American people are."