No, senators cannot be impeached. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution reserves impeachment for the President, Vice President, and “all civil Officers of the United States,” and since 1799 that phrase has been read to exclude members of Congress.1Constitution Annotated. Article II Section 4 – Impeachment The Senate disciplines its own members through a separate mechanism written into Article I: expulsion by a two-thirds vote, or lesser punishments like censure.
Why Senators Fall Outside the Impeachment Clause
The impeachment clause targets “civil Officers,” a term consistently understood to mean people appointed to executive or judicial positions, not elected legislators. The Constitution treats the two categories as distinct in other places as well. The Incompatibility Clause bars members of Congress from simultaneously holding any other federal office, which only makes sense if legislators and officers are separate groups.2Congress.gov. ArtI.S6.C2.1 Overview of Federal Office Prohibition
The Constitution Annotated states the settled view directly: “The practice of impeachment makes clear, however, that Members of Congress are not civil officers subject to impeachment and removal.”3Constitution Annotated. ArtII.S4.1 Overview of Impeachment Clause The same reasoning applies to House members. Neither chamber’s members are impeachable officials.
The One Time It Was Tried: William Blount
The question has been tested exactly once. In 1797, Senator William Blount of Tennessee was accused of conspiring with Great Britain to seize Spanish-held territories in the American Southwest. The House voted to impeach him, making him the first member of Congress subjected to the process.4United States Senate. Expulsion Case of William Blount of Tennessee (1797) The Senate, acting under its own authority, expelled Blount before the impeachment trial even opened.
When the trial finally began in December 1798, the jurisdictional question took over: could the Senate try one of its own members through impeachment? Blount’s lawyers argued that senators were not “civil officers” under Article II. On January 14, 1799, the Senate voted 14 to 11 to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction.5United States Senate. Impeachment Trial of Senator William Blount, 1799
The Senate never spelled out whether it was holding that no senator could ever be impeached or simply that an already-expelled senator could no longer be tried. Either way, the practical result has held for more than two centuries. No member of Congress has faced an impeachment trial since.
How the Senate Actually Removes a Senator
Article I, Section 5 gives each chamber the power to “punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.”6Congress.gov. Article I Section 5 Clause 2 – Rules Expulsion is permanent removal from office, decided entirely within the chamber. The House plays no role, and courts have refused to review these decisions, treating them as political questions committed to the legislature. As the Supreme Court put it, members subject to legislative discipline are “judged by no specifically articulated standards” by a body “from whose decision there is no established right of review.”7Cornell Law Institute. Judicial Interpretations of the Expulsion Clause
The two-thirds threshold is deliberately steep. It keeps a slim majority from ousting political rivals over policy fights and forces broad, bipartisan agreement before a senator can be removed.
In practice, expulsion is rare. The Senate has expelled only 15 members in its entire history. Fourteen of those were expelled during the Civil War for supporting the Confederacy. Blount was the only other one. Senators facing serious expulsion threats usually resign first. Harrison Williams resigned in 1982 during corruption proceedings, and Robert Packwood resigned in 1995 while the Ethics Committee was moving toward an expulsion recommendation.8U.S. Senate. About Expulsion
Censure and Other Lesser Punishments
The same clause that authorizes expulsion also supports lesser discipline. Censure is the most familiar. A censured senator keeps the seat, keeps every vote, and loses no formal power. What they get is a public condemnation from the full chamber, on the record. Censure requires only a simple majority, not the two-thirds needed for expulsion.6Congress.gov. Article I Section 5 Clause 2 – Rules Below censure sit a formal reprimand and a private letter of admonition.
Discipline usually starts with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, which investigates misconduct allegations, holds hearings, and recommends action. Its recommendations can range from expulsion and censure to reprimand, restitution, and loss of seniority or committee assignments.9U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics. Jurisdictional Authorities For lower-level violations, a unanimous vote of the six-member committee can impose a reprimand or restitution order without going to the full Senate.
Can a Sitting Senator Be Prosecuted?
Yes. Senators are not immune from criminal law while in office. The Speech or Debate Clause in Article I, Section 6 protects them from being questioned in court about votes, floor speeches, and acts that are genuinely part of the legislative process, but it stops there. In United States v. Brewster, the Supreme Court upheld the bribery indictment of a member of Congress, holding that “taking a bribe is, obviously, no part of the legislative process or function.”10Justia Law. Compensation and Immunities of Members Conduct outside the legislative sphere — fraud, tax evasion, assault, insider trading — is fair game for prosecution in federal or state court.
A criminal conviction does not automatically vacate a Senate seat. Even a senator serving a prison sentence keeps the seat until they resign or the chamber expels them. In practice, a felony conviction almost always produces one or the other.
Filling the Seat After a Senator Leaves
When a Senate seat becomes vacant through expulsion, resignation, or death, the Seventeenth Amendment controls the replacement. The governor issues a writ of election, and the state legislature may authorize the governor to make a temporary appointment until voters choose a permanent successor.11Constitution Annotated. Seventeenth Amendment
State rules differ. Some states require a special election with no interim appointment. Others let the governor name a temporary senator until the next general election. A few require the appointee to come from the same party as the departing senator.12U.S. Senate. Appointed Senators Whether removing a senator shifts the balance of the chamber depends heavily on which state’s rules apply.