1. When Presidents Go Bad: Congressional Investigations and Impeachments as checks against presidential power

2. Today… Origins of impeachment Grounds for impeachment 3 cases of impeachment

3. Impeachment in the Constitution The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. (I:2) 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. (I:3)

4. Grounds for Impeachment 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. (II:4)

5. What are high crimes and misdemeanors? “Impeachment of a president should be resorted to only for cases of the gravest kind—the commission of a crime named in the Constitution or a criminal offense against the laws of the United States.” -- argument made by Nixon’s lawyers

6. What are high crimes and misdemeanors? “Impeachment conduct…may include the serious failure to discharge the affirmative duties imposed on the president by the Constitution. Unlike a criminal case, the cause for removal…may be based on his entire course of conduct in office…more than individual acts. …Impeachment was evolved to cope with both the inadequacy of criminal standards and the impotence of the courts to deal with the conduct of great public figures.” -- 1974 Staff report of the House Judiciary Committee

7. What are high crimes and misdemeanors? “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history; conviction results from whatever offense or offenses two-thirds of the other body considers to be sufficiently serious to require removal of the accused from office.” »Rep. Gerald Ford, 1970

8. Three impeachment efforts