Commentary by KatHowarth

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The practicality of impeachment

by Kat Howarth (KatHowarth)

Cite as: Kat Howarth, ‘The practicality of impeachment’ in Kat Howarth, Impeachment and the Convention, Quill Project at Pembroke College (Oxford, 2016), item 93.

Impeachment and the Convention

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Commentary

The convention has now turned to the suggestion that the executive should be impeachable, but here Madison questions the sensibility of allowing the executive to hold office during good behaviour on the basis that impeachments may be impractical. He suggests that a tribunal for impeachments must be ‘as certain & as adequate in the one case as in the other’.

Although the motion for good behaviour was negatived, questions about how impeachments should be tried would crop up again and cause problems in later discussion.

Associated event

The Virginia Plan as amended in Committee [Resolutions] - Ninth Resolution (Working Version): Length of Term - McClurg/Morris for Good Behaviour was debated on 17 July 1787

Approved for publication

None

Commentary Collections

Impeachment and the Convention

The practicality of impeachment

by Kat Howarth (KatHowarth)

Impeachment and the Convention