Legal Notes: Impeachment as a “Political Question”

Abstract

The recent trio of impeachments and convictions of U.S. district judges began when Judge Harry Claiborne (D. Nev.) refused to resign his office after his conviction for violating federal law. It continued with impeachments and convictions of judges Alcee Hastings (S.D. Ra.) and Walter Nixon (S.D. Miss.), which resulted in judicial opinions concerning impeachment process, particularly procedure by which, rather than whole Senate sitting to hear testimony, Senate used a committee to do so, with full Senate then considering committee's report. This led one federal judge to rule that Judge Hastings's impeachment had been unconstitutionally handled. Then, however, in Judge Nixon' s case, Supreme Court ruled that developing procedures to try impeached judges was within Senate's prerogative and, thus, challenges to Senate's power were nonjusticiable, making issues relating to impeachment process out-of-bounds for judiciary. I. Nixon in Lower Courts. Impeached, convicted, and removed from office, Judge Nixon brought a case in which he claimed he had been denied a full trial by Senate. The U.S. District Court dismissed his case, and U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal roughly a year later. In district court, Judge Oberdorfer ruled that Senate's use of a committee to take testimony, coupled with impeached individual's opportunity to argue to full Senate personally and through counsel, did not have the dimension of departure from Constitution's textual commitment to Senate of 'sole Power to try all Impeach ments' to make this controversy justiciable and claim meritorious. Nixon v. United States, 744 F. Supp. 9, 14 (D.D.C. 1990). Key to Judge Oberdorfens ruling was his determination that plaintiff has not established kind of clear violation of a specific constitutional requirement which would trigger judicial authority to review a solemn and serious Senate action. (Id. at 13.) In Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit, panel was unanimous in affirming ruling against Judge Nixon, but it divided on how to reach that result and produced three opinions. Judge Stephen Williams wrote opinion of court, holding that action was nonjusticiable because the impeachment power [was] to be qualified only by political forces; process, which had checks built into it, was constrained by