The Impeachment Process

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 11, 1998 / 12:10 PM EDT / CBS

The House Rules Committee has started the process that will lead to the release of independent counsel Kenneth Starr's report on President Clinton.

The 450 pages are described as an introduction, a narrative, and a section setting out grounds of impeachment.

The final wording of the provision for impeachment in the US constitution was framed on September 8th, 1787. Article II, Section 4 states:

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.

The way it works in a nutshell, the House Judiciary Committee or other special committee draws up articles of impeachment listing offenses. The House needs a simple majority to initiate an impeachment. The impeachment is sent to the Senate for trial.

Specifically, the House next week will vote on how the Judiciary Committee should proceed on examining the report. At some point, the full House will have to decide if the report contains grounds to open "an impeachment inquiry". That inquiry may involve hearings with witnesses. At the end of those hearings, articles of impeachment would have to be produced (much like an indictment), and the matter would go to the Senate for trial.

CBS News Congressional Correspondent Bob Fuss adds:
"Impeachment is not a legal process...it is a congressional one...Ken Starr's role is over and the focus now turns to the House Judiciary Committee. The committee must go through the evidence that Starr has presented and is free to gather its own. The committee's first job is to determine if there is sufficient evidence against the president to launch a formal impeachment inquiry. The full house would have to vote and only at that point could formal impeachment hearings could begin."

What behavior necessitates impeachment has been the subject of controversy among legal scholars.

"It's murky because we don't have a lot of precendent" says Paul Rothstein, professor at Georgetown University Law Center and former special counsel to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. He explains that there is a component of the process that is political in nature.