General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWho Controls Impeachment Proceedings In The Senate......
should it go that far?
I know that impeachment starts in the House - which is Dem controlled. But what happens when and if it gets to the Senate? Are the Dems still in control? Do they control the timing of the impeachment events that happen in the Senate or because the Senate is Repug controlled - does McConnell have anything to do with it and can he call for the impeachment vote in the Senate at anytime?
I don't know if I'd heard this topic discussed.
manor321
(3,344 posts)The Democrats are absolutely not in control though. Since the Constitution says the Chief Justice "presides" over the impeachment trial, it would seem that Roberts would run it (and that Republicans couldn't stop it).
However, I'd expect Republicans to not allow the trial to go forward, forcing the Supreme Court to make a decision. Who knows how they would rule.
Justice Roberts hears the case. This fact exposes the myth that impeachment is merely a political process. It's a civil trial. Chief Justices do not oversee political events as part of their job.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)instead a jury (or the Chief Justice) would.
H2O Man
(73,537 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)spanone
(135,831 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)hlthe2b
(102,269 posts)an impeachment referral at which, Roberts would then "preside", but the cards are in McConnell's hands. If he tried to obstruct or just ignore the referral, it would not be Roberts alone who would have to address it. That would be a constitutional crisis that would likely have to be litigated before the entire SCOTUS.
All speculative, but after McConnell's behavior with refusing to give Merrick Garland a hearing, nothing is impossible.
Can the Senate Decline to Try an Impeachment Case
by Bob Bauer
(Bob Bauer served as White House Counsel to President Obama. In 2013, the President named Bob to be Co-Chair of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration. He is a Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at New York University School of Law, as well as the co-director of the university's Legislative and Regulatory Process Clinic.)
https://www.lawfareblog.com/can-senate-decline-try-impeachment-case
--snip---
The Constitution does not by its express terms direct the Senate to try an impeachment. In fact, it confers on the Senate "the sole power to try, which is a conferral of exclusive constitutional authority and not a procedural command. The Constitution couches the power to impeach in the same terms: it is the Houses sole power. The House may choose to impeach or not, and one can imagine an argument that the Senate is just as free, in the exercise of its own sole power, to decline to try any impeachment that the House elects to vote.
The current rules governing Senate practice and procedure do not pose an insurmountable problem for this maneuver. Senate leadership can seek to have the rules reinterpreted at any time by the device of seeking a ruling of the chair on the question, and avoiding a formal revision of the rule that would require supermajority approval. The question presented in some form would be whether, under the relevant rules, the Senate is required to hold an impeachment trial fully consistent with current rulesor even any trial at all. A chairs ruling in the affirmative would be subject to being overturned by a majority, not two-thirds, vote. --snip--
The Senate has options for scuttling the impeachment process beyond a simple refusal to heed the House vote. The Constitution does not specify what constitutes a trial, and in a 1993 case involving a judicial impeachment, the Supreme Court affirmed that the Senates sole power to try means that it is not subject to any limitations on how it could conduct a proceeding. Senate leadership could engineer an early motion to dismiss and effectively moot the current rules call for the president or counsel to appear before the Senate. The rules in place provide at any rate only that the Senate shall have power to compel the attendance of witnesses: they do not require that any other than the president be called. Moreover, the Senate could adjourn at any time, terminating the proceedings and declining to take up the House articles. This is what happened in the trial of Andrew Johnson, in which the Senate voted on three articles and then adjourned without holding votes on the remaining eight.
This discussion does not engage in depth with all the parliamentary possibilities and intricacies. But it is sufficient to say for present purposes that, if the House of Representatives were to impeach the president, Senate Republicans would be in a position, if so inclined, to scuttle any trial.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)The House's role ends after appointed Managers from the House deliver the articles and evidence for impeachment to the Senate.
The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments
and
When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside.
See:
RULES OF PROCEDURE AND PRACTICE INTHE SENATE WHEN SITTING ON IMPEACHMENT TRIALS:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/background/impeach/senaterules.pdf
(note the time frame specified in the Senate rules for the process)
Congressional Research Service - An Overview of the Impeachment Process
https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/98-806.pdf
United States Senate - Impeachment:
https://www.cop.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Senate_Impeachment_Role.htm
US Supreme Court: Nixon v United States:
https://www.cop.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/7USvNixon1993.pdf
Cattledog
(5,914 posts)The proceedings unfold in the form of a trial, with each side having the right to call witnesses and perform cross-examinations. The House members, who are given the collective title of managers during the course of the trial, present the prosecution case, and the impeached official has the right to mount a defense with his or her own attorneys as well. Senators must also take an oath or affirmation that they will perform their duties honestly and with due diligence. After hearing the charges, the Senate usually deliberates in private. The Constitution requires a two-thirds super majority to convict a person being impeached.[4] The Senate enters judgment on its decision, whether that be to convict or acquit, and a copy of the judgment is filed with the Secretary of State.[5] Upon conviction in the Senate, the official is automatically removed from office and may also be barred from holding future office. The trial is not an actual criminal proceeding and more closely resembles a civil service termination appeal in terms of the contemplated deprivation. Therefore, the removed official may still be liable to criminal prosecution under a subsequent criminal proceeding. The President may not grant a pardon in the impeachment case, but may in any resulting Federal criminal case.[6]
Beginning in the 1980s with Harry E. Claiborne, the Senate began using "Impeachment Trial Committees" pursuant to Senate Rule XI.[5] These committees presided over the evidentiary phase of the trials, hearing the evidence and supervising the examination and cross-examination of witnesses. The committees would then compile the evidentiary record and present it to the Senate; all senators would then have the opportunity to review the evidence before the chamber voted to convict or acquit. The purpose of the committees was to streamline impeachment trials, which otherwise would have taken up a great deal of the chamber's time. Defendants challenged the use of these committees, claiming them to be a violation of their fair trial rights as this did not meet the constitutional requirement for their cases to be "tried by the Senate". Several impeached judges, including District Court Judge Walter Nixon, sought court intervention in their impeachment proceedings on these grounds. In Nixon v. United States (1993), the Supreme Court determined that the federal judiciary could not review such proceedings, as matters related to impeachment trials are political questions and could not be resolved in the courts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_in_the_United_States
hlthe2b
(102,269 posts)than as a Judge in the traditional sense.
hlthe2b
(102,269 posts)See my post #12 as to how McConnel COULD obstruct the entire process.