Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution is the removal clause. It says 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.”1Legal Information Institute (LII). Article II, Section 4 – Impeachment and Removal From Office It is the only route the Constitution gives for pushing a sitting president or federal officer out of office before the term ends, and it requires action by both chambers of Congress.
Who the Clause Covers
Three groups fall inside Article II, Section 4: the President, the Vice President, and “all civil Officers of the United States.”1Legal Information Institute (LII). Article II, Section 4 – Impeachment and Removal From Office Civil officers means people appointed under the Appointments Clause: Cabinet secretaries, heads of independent agencies, ambassadors, and federal judges, along with inferior officers whose appointment Congress has vested in the President, the courts, or department heads.2Cornell Law School. Overview of the Appointments Clause
A lot of people who work for the federal government are not covered. Rank-and-file employees and military personnel are outside the clause. So are members of Congress. Each chamber disciplines its own under Article I, Section 5, which allows expulsion by a two-thirds vote of that chamber alone.3Cornell Law Institute. Punishments and Expulsions
Federal judges deserve a note of their own. Article III says judges hold their offices “during good Behaviour,” and some scholars have argued that phrase creates a separate, lower removal standard for the bench. The prevailing view in Congress rejects that reading and treats impeachment as the only way to remove a federal judge.4Legal Information Institute (LII). Good Behavior Clause – Doctrine and Practice In practice, judges make up the large majority of officials the clause has ever been used against.
What Counts as Treason, Bribery, or High Crimes and Misdemeanors
The clause lists three grounds, and the word “other” ties the last category to the seriousness of the first two.
Treason is the one crime the Constitution itself defines. Article III, Section 3 limits it to levying war against the United States or giving aid and comfort to its enemies.5Legal Information Institute. Treason Clause – Doctrine and Practice Bribery is a public official taking something of value in exchange for an official act. Neither has generated much argument as a basis for removal.
“High Crimes and Misdemeanors” is the piece that carries most of the weight, and it is a constitutional phrase, not a citation to any criminal code. The word “high” historically referred to offenses committed by people holding public authority, as opposed to ordinary crimes. Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 65 that impeachable offenses “proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.” The category has been understood to reach abuse of power, corruption, neglect of duty, and usurpation of authority.
An impeachable offense does not have to be a violation of criminal law. Judge John Pickering, the first official removed through impeachment, was convicted in 1803 on charges centered on habitual drunkenness on the bench, conduct no statute made criminal. The Senate has never adopted the position that a criminal violation is a prerequisite.
How the Removal Process Works
Article II, Section 4 sets the standard, but two other clauses set the procedure. The House holds “the sole Power of Impeachment,”6Congress.gov. Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 and the Senate holds “the sole Power to try all Impeachments.”7Congress.gov. Article I, Section 3, Clause 6
The House Vote
Impeachment in the House is closer to an indictment than a verdict. The House Judiciary Committee typically investigates, holds hearings, and drafts articles of impeachment if it finds the evidence warrants charges. Those articles then go to the full House, where a simple majority is enough to impeach. A House vote to impeach does not remove anyone. It moves the matter to the Senate and it sends a team of House members, called managers, to prosecute the case.
The Senate Trial
The Senate then conducts a trial, with senators sworn in as judge and jury and the chamber setting its own rules on evidence, witnesses, and argument.8Legal Information Institute (LII). The Power to Try Impeachments – Overview When the person on trial is the President, the Chief Justice of the United States presides.9Legal Information Institute (LII). Overview of Impeachment Trials The Vice President would otherwise have a direct personal stake in the outcome. For every other impeachment, the Senate’s usual presiding officer runs the trial.
Each article is voted on separately, and conviction requires a two-thirds supermajority of the senators present.7Congress.gov. Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 That threshold is deliberately high, designed so that removal cannot happen on a bare partisan majority. Conviction on any single article is enough to remove the official.
What Conviction Does, and What It Doesn’t
Conviction removes the official from office immediately. There is no wind-down, no negotiated exit, no waiting out the term.
The Senate may also vote separately to bar the person from ever holding federal office again. Article I, Section 3, Clause 7 provides that judgment “shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States.”10Congress.gov. Article I, Section 3, Clause 7 Disqualification is not automatic and, by Senate precedent, requires only a simple majority.11Justia Case Law. Judgment – Removal and Disqualification Some removed officials have gone on to hold public office again.
Impeachment is a political remedy, not a criminal one. No one goes to prison for a Senate conviction. But the Constitution states that a convicted official “shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.”12Legal Information Institute. Judgment in Cases of Impeachment – Doctrine and Practice Removal does not shield anyone from a criminal case built on the same facts, and double jeopardy does not attach because the impeachment was not a criminal proceeding.
The President cannot pardon someone out of this process. Article II, Section 2 gives the President the power to grant “Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”13LII / Legal Information Institute. Overview of Pardon Power A pardon cannot block impeachment, halt a Senate trial, or reverse a conviction. It can still wipe out separate criminal liability for the same underlying conduct, but the removal itself stands.
How Often the Clause Has Actually Been Used
Removal under Article II, Section 4 is rare. As of 2026, the House has impeached 22 federal officials in the country’s history, most of them federal judges.14U.S. Senate. Impeachment Cases Only three presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019 and again in 2021. None was convicted. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before the full House voted on articles against him.
About a third of the 22 impeached officials were convicted and removed. Others resigned before their trials ended, and some were acquitted. The two-thirds bar is the reason the numbers stay low.
Two Open Questions: Former Officials and Judicial Review
Whether the Senate can try an official who has already left office is unsettled. The main precedent is the 1876 trial of Secretary of War William Belknap, who resigned hours before the House impeached him for corruption. The Senate debated jurisdiction, voted that it retained power to try a former officer, held the trial, and acquitted him when the conviction votes fell short of two-thirds.15U.S. Senate. Impeachment Trial of Secretary of War William Belknap The question surfaced again in 2021, when the Senate trial of Donald Trump began after he had left office. The Senate voted 56 to 44 that it had jurisdiction and then acquitted him 57 to 43, short of the 67 votes needed for conviction.
Once the Senate rules, there is nowhere else to go. In Nixon v. United States (1993), federal Judge Walter Nixon challenged his Senate conviction, arguing the Senate had not properly “tried” him. The Supreme Court held the claim nonjusticiable, reasoning that the Constitution’s grant of the “sole Power” to try impeachments left the process to the Senate “with no judicial involvement, even for the limited purpose of judicial review.”16Legal Information Institute (LII). Walter L. Nixon, Petitioner v. United States et al. For practical purposes, the Senate’s verdict on an Article II, Section 4 charge is the final word.