1. Nixon v. United States, (1993)
2. Facts: Nixon was a Federal Circuit Court judge who was accused of taking gifts from a prominent local businessman in return for asking a local DA to halt the prosecution of the businessman’s son.
3. Procedural Posture: The House adopted three articles of impeachment, and then the Senate, subsequent to its own impeachment rules, appointed a subcommittee to hear the evidence. The subcommittee then summarized the facts and findings for the entire Senate, and open arguments were held on the floor, which culminated in the required 2/3 vote to convict. Nixon appeals on the grounds that the power to “try” impeachments in the Constitution requires a full judicial proceeding where the entire Senate hears all of the evidence.
4. Issue: Whether the Senate procedural rule allowing for a subcommittee to hear and summarize the evidence violates the Impeachment clause which provides that the “Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.”
5. Holding: No. This is not a justiciable question, it is a political question.
6. Majority Reasoning: [Rehnquist] A controversy is non-justiciable, i.e. it involves a political question, where there is “a textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to a coordinate political department; or a lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standars for resolving it.” Here, the power to “try” an impeachment is a broad power that precludes any manageable standards. Also, since the Senate has the “sole” power to try impeachments, it must be able to function without interference in these proceedings. Judicial review of the Senate’s trial would introduce risks of violation of checks and balances, because it would make the Judicial Branch the final reviewing authority of the “important constitutional check” placed on them by the Framers.
7. Concurrence Reasoning: [White] This is a justiciable question, and may be judicially managed fairly.
