{"id":292,"date":"2023-06-02T14:18:50","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T14:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/article-ii-section-4-impeachment-clause-mira-gulati\/"},"modified":"2023-06-02T14:19:13","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T14:19:13","slug":"article-ii-section-4-impeachment-clause-mira-gulati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/article-ii-section-4-impeachment-clause-mira-gulati\/","title":{"rendered":"Article II, Section 4 (Impeachment Clause)-Mira Gulati"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Video<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Impeachment Clause-Mira\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yEB2YeswxZY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Written Component<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The impeachment clause in Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution is one of the most important powers given to Congress. It embodies the key principles of separation of powers and checks and balances embedded in the document. These principles were created by Baron Montesquieu, an Enlightenment thinker, who said that separating the branches and holding each other accountable was essential to preventing abuse of power that denied people their liberty.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The objective of the impeachment clause was to provide Congress with another safeguard for this abuse of power, stating that \u201cThe 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.\u201d&nbsp; An earlier draft of the impeachment clause held that officials could be impeached for \u201cTreason, Bribery, or maladministration\u201d James Madison and the Philadelphia delegates objected to the wording and said that its obscurity would result in unreasonable impeachments. As a result, the word \u2018maladministration\u2019 was removed in favor of \u2018other high crimes and Misdemeanors\u2019 With these new revisions, congress instituted a clause that allowed the House of Representatives to bring charges against any official that has committed a crime or worked against the will of the American people. The exclusion of \u2018maladministration\u2019 makes it clear that unfitness for the post is not a valid reason for impeachment. However, the full grounds for impeachment are still not clarified with the new phrase and the meaning of \u2018high crimes and misdemeanors\u2019 is still debated today.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The different interpretations came into play during former President Bill Clinton\u2019s impeachment in 1999. The impeachment arrived after it was revealed that Clinton had lied under oath about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The Senate, however, did not find him guilty of the counts of perjury and obstruction of justice Many Democrats advocated that while Clinton\u2019s behavior was morally punishable, it did not affect the public so it did not constitute impeachment. That it was not a \u2018high crime\u2019 On the other side of the aisle, Republicans argued that his actions betrayed the trust of the nation and were therefore liable for conviction.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Clinton case raised a lot of questions surrounding the conduct of government officials. Many people wondered whether he set a precedent that only wrongdoing related to the President\u2019s decisions involving the nation would constitute an impeachment. Whether only crimes prosecutable by court apply to the clause or misconduct and dishonor did too. If the original clause is to be maintained, only time and more impeachments will answer it.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">An alternate solution, however, lies in an amendment that would revise the last phrase of the Constitution so that the \u2018high\u2019 in \u2018high crimes\u2019 is removed. This would help clarify whether any crime that an official commits is applicable for impeachment. It does not make sense to have a range of crimes that an official is allowed to commit as they need to be held to the same standards as everyone else in America. The system of checks and balances that are meant to retain the citizen\u2019s liberty holds no power if they do not. <\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The impeachment clause in Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution is one of the most important powers given to Congress. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4574,"featured_media":234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[222,228,39,219,230,233,237,231,79,225,236,221,223,227,235,229,193,224,226,234,83,200,220,232,112],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-222","tag-9th-grade-history-d","tag-article","tag-article-ii","tag-article-ii-section-4","tag-bill-clinton","tag-bribery","tag-checks-and-balances","tag-clause","tag-gulati","tag-high-crimes-and-misdemeanors","tag-ii","tag-impeachment","tag-impeachment-clause","tag-impeachment-power","tag-impeachment-trial","tag-kalbag","tag-mira","tag-mira-gulati","tag-monica-lewinsky","tag-president","tag-section","tag-section-4-impeachment-clause-mira-gulati","tag-separation-of-powers","tag-treason"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4574"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}