House’s ‘Impeachment Club’ May Get Its First New Member Since 1936

WASHINGTON — They threatened to jail their critics. They used their offices for personal gain. They planned revolutions. If there was a Rogue’s Gallery for public officials, many defendants in impeachment cases would have their pictures on the wall.

The “impeachment club” is small. The House has recommended ousting only 13 federal officers since the first case in 1799--a list that may grow this month when members of the House vote on whether to impeach federal Judge Harry E. Claiborne of Nevada, an imprisoned tax evader.

Richard Nixon is not in the club, because he resigned after the House Judiciary Committee recommended impeachment.

Victims and Scoundrels

Impeachment is Congress’ way of removing federal officials from office. The process has touched victims of politics and genuine scoundrels.

President Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House in 1868, after running afoul of Congress’ Radical Republicans in the era of bad feeling that lingered after the Civil War. He escaped Senate conviction by one vote.

The House approved impeachment articles in 1926 against Judge George W. English of Illinois. He summoned state and local officials, then denounced them in open court with profane language, the House charged. He also told jurors in open court that they would be jailed if a particular defendant was not convicted.

English resigned prior to a Senate trial and the case was dismissed.

Trial in Senate

A House impeachment vote sends the case to the Senate for trial. There, a two-thirds vote is required for conviction. The rule has allowed some defendants to beat the rap, even though a majority of senators supported conviction.

Officials can be impeached under the Constitution for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The first two offenses are easy to recognize. But “high crimes and misdemeanors” are trickier, because they don’t have to be criminal acts. They involve conduct that would undermine the integrity of the U.S. government.

Judges for Life

Congress need not bother to impeach most high federal officials who are guilty of misbehavior because they can simply be fired. But judges are appointed for life.

Ten of the 13 defendants impeached by the House have been judges. The other three were a U.S. senator, a secretary of war and Johnson.

Four defendants were convicted by the Senate, three resigned during some stage of the impeachment proceedings, the case of one defendant was thrown out on jurisdictional grounds and five defendants were acquitted by the Senate.

Senator First

The first impeachment case was against Sen. William Blount of Tennessee. A former commissioner of Indian affairs, he was accused of trying to organize Indians and frontiersmen as part of a pro-British armed attack on Spanish territory.

He was acquitted in 1799 on grounds that a U.S. senator is not subject to impeachment. But by then, the Senate had long since rid itself of Blount, having expelled him in 1797 by a 25-1 vote.

A fellow Tennessean, federal judge West H. Humphreys, wasn’t so lucky with his revolution.

Supported Secession

He was convicted by a 38-0 vote in 1862, because he, “along with other evil-minded persons,” supported his state’s secession from the Union.

In 1803, Judge John Pickering of New Hampshire was charged by the House with permitting delivery of a ship to a claimant while U.S. agents were trying to condemn the vessel and its cargo for customs violations.

But another count told the real story, describing the judge as “a man of loose morals and intemperate habits, who appeared on the bench “in a state of intoxication . . . and there frequently, in a most profane and indecent manner, (invoked) the name of the Supreme Being.”

‘Wholly Deranged’

The Senate convicted Pickering in 1804 after his son testified that the judge had been “wholly deranged” with a disorder that “has baffled all medical aid.”

On the day of Pickering’s conviction, the House voted its only impeachment against a Supreme Court justice, Samuel Chase. He was acquitted by senators of charges that he violated a defendant’s rights in a treason trial.

One count said he tried to induce grand jurors to indict a newspaper editor for sedition, and would not discharge them when they refused to do so.

Eight Articles

Chase was acquitted on all eight impeachment articles, with votes ranging from 34 to 0 for acquittal to 19 to 15 for conviction.

In 1826, Judge James H. Peck of Missouri decided a land claims case. It was criticized so widely that he wrote an article for a St. Louis newspaper explaining the ruling.

The losing lawyer countered with an article that listed 18 legal errors, and threw in some comments about the judge’s behavior on the bench.

Acquitted by Senate

The judge found the lawyer guilty of contempt, ordered him to jail for 24 hours and suspended him from practicing in federal court for 18 months. Peck was impeached by the House in 1830 for those actions but was acquitted by the Senate, 22 to 21.

Secretary of War William W. Belknap’s impeachment in 1876 followed congressional investigations of corruption in the Ulysses S. Grant Administration.

Belknap quit just hours before the House charged him with taking bribe money for the appointment of a military post trader, but the Senate proceeded with a trial anyway. A majority--but less than two-thirds--of the senators voted for conviction on all four articles.

Resignation Considered

However, 22 senators who voted for acquittal said they did so only because they believed Belknap’s resignation should have ended the case.

Others impeached by the House:

- Judge Mark Delahay in 1873. The House contended that his “personal habits unfitted him for the judicial office, that he was intoxicated off the bench as well as on the bench.” He resigned after the House vote, and the case ended.

- Judge Charles Swayne of Florida in 1904. Charged with submitting false expense accounts, among other things, he was acquitted on all counts in the Senate.

Convicted by Senate

- Judge Robert Archbald of Pennsylvania, in 1912. He was convicted by the Senate on five impeachment articles. Charges included obtaining credit from litigants; attempting to influence legal actions before the Interstate Commerce Commission for a financial consideration; and using his position on the bench to enter into profitable business deals.

- Judge Harold Louderback of California, impeached in 1933 on charges that he showed favoritism in bankruptcy cases. He was acquitted by the Senate.

In the last case resulting in a House vote, the lawmakers adopted impeachment articles against Judge Halsted L. Ritter of Florida in 1936. The Senate convicted him.

According to the charges, Ritter received $4,500 from a former law partner whom Ritter appointed as a receiver in a bankruptcy case. The receiver’s fee originally was set by another judge at $15,000; Ritter made it $75,000.

Additional charges: Ritter failed to pay income tax on all his earnings in 1929 and 1930.