Editing Impeachment (section)

{{Short description|Process for charging a public official with legal offenses by the legislature(s)}}
{{About|the process of charging a public official|challenging a witness in a legal proceeding|Witness impeachment|the ''American Crime Story'' season|Impeachment: American Crime Story{{!}}''Impeachment: American Crime Story''}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
[[File:Presidente da Coreia do Sul, Park Geun-hye, visita o Brasil - c.jpg|thumb|[[Brazil|Brazilian]] [[President of Brazil|president]] [[Dilma Rousseff]] (left) and [[South Korea|South Korean]] [[President of South Korea|president]] [[Park Geun-hye]] (right) were both impeached and removed from office in [[Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff|2016]] and [[Impeachment of Park Geun-hye|2017]], respectively.]]
'''Impeachment''' is a process by which a [[legislative body]] or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a [[official|public official]] for misconduct.<ref name=EBrit>{{Cite web|title=impeachment {{!}} Definition, Process, History, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/impeachment|access-date=2020-11-15|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|archive-date=17 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211117172738/https://www.britannica.com/topic/impeachment|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Landau |editor1-first=Sidney |editor2-last=Brantley |editor2-first=Sheila |editor3-last=Davis |editor3-first=Samuel |editor4-last=Koenigsberg |editor4-first=Ruth |title=Funk & Wagnall's Standard Desk Dictionary |volume=1 |date=1997 |publisher=Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. |location=United States |isbn=978-0-308-10353-5 |page=322 |edition=1996 |language=English |quote=1. To charge (a high public official) before a legally constituted tribunal with crime or misdemeanor in office. 2. To bring discredit upon the honesty or validity of.}}</ref> It may be understood as a unique process involving both [[political]] and [[Law|legal]] elements.<ref name=GerhardtTheLaw>{{Cite web|author=[[Michael J. Gerhardt]]|title=Impeachment is the law. Saying 'political process' only helps Trump's narrative.|quote=while it's true that politics are bound up in how impeachment plays out, it's a myth that impeachment is just political. Rather, it's the principal legal remedy that the Constitution expressly specifies to hold presidents accountable|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/12/14/impeachment-is-law-saying-political-process-only-helps-trumps-narrative/|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=15 February 2021|archive-date=14 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114062623/https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/12/14/impeachment-is-law-saying-political-process-only-helps-trumps-narrative/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Gerhardt3dedition>{{Cite book|publisher=University of Chicago Press|title=The Federal Impeachment Process: A Constitutional and Historical Analysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3d6NDwAAQBAJ|author=Michael J. Gerhardt|edition=3d|year=2019|pages=106–07|isbn=9780226554976|quote=The ratification debates support the conclusion that 'other high Crimes and Misdemeanors' were not limited to indictable offenses but rather included great offenses against the federal government. ... Justices James Wilson and Joseph Story expressed agreement with Hamilton's understanding of impeachment as a political proceeding and impeachable offenses as political crimes.}}</ref><ref name=Gerhardt20>{{Cite book|author=Gerhardt|first=Michael|title=Impeachment: What Everyone Needs to Know|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2018|isbn=978-0190903657|location=New York, N.Y.|page=20|lccn=2018013560|quote=Impeachment has elements of both legal and political proceedings. As a result, it is a unique process.|author-link=Michael Gerhardt}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. Senate: About Impeachment |url=https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/impeachment.htm |access-date=2024-03-25 |website=www.senate.gov |archive-date=7 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230907130839/https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/impeachment.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

In [[Europe]] and [[Latin America]], impeachment tends to be confined to [[Minister (government)|ministerial]] officials<ref name="WorldBook">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Davidson |first1=Roger |encyclopedia=World Book Encyclopedia |volume=I 10 |title=Impeachment |date=2005 |location=Chicago |isbn=0-7166-0105-2 |page=92 |edition=2005 |language=English}}</ref> as the unique nature of their positions may place ministers beyond the reach of the law to prosecute, or their misconduct is not codified into law as an offense except through the unique expectations of their high office. Both "[[Peerages in the United Kingdom|peers]] and [[commoners]]" have been subject to the process, however.<ref>{{cite web |title=Impeachment |url=https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/impeachment/ |website=UK Parliament Glossary |access-date=5 February 2021 |language=English |quote=Impeachment is when a peer or commoner is accused of ‘high crimes and misdemeanours, beyond the reach of the law or which no other authority in the state will prosecute.' |archive-date=8 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208165239/https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/impeachment/ |url-status=live }}</ref> From 1990 to 2020, there have been at least 272 impeachment charges against 132 different [[Head of State|heads of state]] in 63 countries.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lawler |first1=David |title=What impeaching leaders looks like around the world |url=https://www.axios.com/impeachment-other-countries-4a5aee7f-90f9-43df-a7e7-cc76ca1f5dfd.html |website=Axios |date=19 December 2019 |access-date=8 February 2021 |archive-date=13 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113145846/https://www.axios.com/impeachment-other-countries-4a5aee7f-90f9-43df-a7e7-cc76ca1f5dfd.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Most [[democracies]] (with the notable exception of the United States) involve the courts (often a national [[constitutional court]]) in some way.<ref name="Designing_Better_Impeachments">{{cite magazine |last1=Huq |first1=Aziz |last2=Ginsburg |first2=Tom |last3=Landau |first3=David |title=Designing Better Impeachments: How other countries' constitutions protect against political free-for-alls |url=http://bostonreview.net/politics-law-justice/aziz-huq-tom-ginsburg-david-landau-designing-better-impeachments |website=Boston Review |date=5 February 2020 |access-date=8 February 2021 |quote=Constitutions in 9 democracies give a court—often the country's constitutional court—the power to begin an impeachment; another 61 constitutions place the court at the end of the process. |archive-date=15 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115000048/https://bostonreview.net/politics-law-justice/aziz-huq-tom-ginsburg-david-landau-designing-better-impeachments |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=EBrit/>

In Latin America, which includes almost 40% of the world's [[presidential system]]s, ten presidents from seven countries were removed from office by their national legislatures via impeachments or declarations of incapacity between 1978 and 2019.<ref>Ignacio Arana Araya, [https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2019/12/13/to-impeach-or-not-to-impeach/ To Impeach or Not to Impeach: Lessons from Latin America] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803112535/https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2019/12/13/to-impeach-or-not-to-impeach/ |date=3 August 2020 }}, ''Georgetown Journal of International Affairs'' (13 December 2019).</ref>

National legislations differ regarding both the consequences and definition of impeachment, but the intent is nearly always to expeditiously vacate the office.<ref name="WorldBook" /> Most commonly, an official is considered impeached after the commencement of the charges, and a trial of some kind is required to remove the official from office.<ref name="WorldBook" />

Because impeachment involves a departure from the normal constitutional procedures by which individuals achieve high office (election, ratification, or appointment) and because it generally requires a [[supermajority]], it is usually reserved for those deemed to have committed serious abuses of their office.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Erskine|first=Daniel H.|date=2008|title=The Trial of Queen Caroline and the Impeachment of President Clinton: Law As a Weapon for Political Reform|url=http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_globalstudies/vol7/iss1/2/|journal=Washington University Global Studies Law Review|language=en|volume=7|issue=1|issn=1546-6981|access-date=17 May 2017|archive-date=29 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729213005/http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_globalstudies/vol7/iss1/2/|url-status=live}}</ref> In the United States, for example, impeachment at the federal level is limited to those who may have committed "[[high crimes and misdemeanors|Treason, Bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors]]"—the latter phrase referring to offenses against the government or the constitution, grave [[abuses of power]], violations of the [[public trust]], or other [[political crime]]s, even if not [[indictable]] criminal offenses.<ref name=Gerhardt3dedition/><ref>{{Cite journal|author=Peter Brandon Bayer|title=The Constitution dictates that impeachment must not be partisan|journal=The Conversation|date=23 May 2019|quote=Noted scholars [[Ronald Rotunda]] and John Nowak explain that the Framers wisely intended the phrase "or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" to include undermining the Constitution and similar, “great offenses against the federal government (like abuse of power) even if they are not necessarily crimes.' For instance, Alexander Hamilton asserted that, while likely to be criminal acts, impeachable wrongdoings 'are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men ... from the abuse or violation of some public trust.' James Madison urged that impeachment is appropriate for 'loss of capacity, or corruption ... [that] might be fatal to the republic.'}}</ref> Under the [[United States Constitution]], the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] has the sole power of impeachments while the [[United States Senate|Senate]] has the sole power to try impeachments (''i.e.'', to acquit or convict); the validity of an impeachment trial is a [[political question]] that is [[nonjusticiable]] (''i.e.'', is not reviewable by the courts).<ref name=ImpeachmentAnnotated>{{Cite web|title=Impeachment|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-2/section-4/impeachment|publisher=Congressional Research Service|work=U.S. Constitution Annotated|via=Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School|access-date=15 February 2021|archive-date=14 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214175826/https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-2/section-4/impeachment|url-status=live}}</ref> In the United States, impeachment is a remedial rather than penal process,<ref name=ImpeachmentAnnotated/><ref name="CRSReport2015">{{cite web|last1=Cole|first1=J. P.|last2=Garvey|first2=T.|date=29 October 2015|title=Report No. R44260, Impeachment and Removal|url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44260.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191219011012/https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44260.pdf|archive-date=19 December 2019|access-date=22 September 2016|website=|publisher=Congressional Research Service|pages=15–16|quote=}}</ref>{{rp|8}} intended to "effectively 'maintain constitutional government' by removing individuals unfit for office";<ref name="CRSReport2015"/>{{rp|8}} persons subject to impeachment and removal remain "liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law."<ref name="CRSReport2015"/>

Impeachment is provided for in the constitutional laws of many countries including Brazil, France, India, Ireland, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. It is distinct from the [[motion of no confidence]] procedure available in some countries whereby a motion of [[censure]] can be used to remove a government and its ministers from office. Such a procedure is not applicable in countries with presidential forms of government like the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hauss|first=Charles|date=29 December 2006|title=Vote of confidence|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/vote-of-confidence|access-date=9 February 2021|website=Britannica|archive-date=14 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114105304/https://www.britannica.com/topic/vote-of-confidence|url-status=live}}</ref>