Welcome to The Constitution: Line by Line.
I'm Senator Mike Lee.
Today, we're going to be talking
about Article 1, Section 3,
which discusses the Senate.
The first clause of Article 1, Section 3,
explains that senators will be chosen for six year terms
as originally written,
it gave the power to choose US senators
to state legislators.
That of course has been changed by the 17th Amendment,
which was ratified in 1913.
Ever since 1913,
with the ratification of the 17th Amendment,
US senators have been chosen by popular elections
in their respective states.
Clause 2 of Article 1, Section 3,
talks about the terms of US senators.
It set up staggered terms
so that not every member of the Senate
would be up for reelection
every two year period.
In other words, there's an election
for representatives that occurs every two years.
And during that time,
each of the three classes of US senators,
we're divided into three groups:
class one, class two, and class three.
A third of the Senate is up for re-election every two years.
That way it's a continuing body
and after each two year incremented election,
you'll have a maximum of one third of the Senate
that might have lost their jobs.
The third clause of Article 1, Section 3,
talks about the minimum requirements
to serve as a US Senator.
It makes clear that someone in order
to be chosen for the Senate
has to be at least 30 years old,
has to have been a citizen of the United States
for at least nine years
and also has to be an inhabitant of the state
that they want to represent.
The fourth clause of Article 1, Section 3,
makes clear that the Vice President of the United States
will serve as the President of the United States Senate.
It also makes clear that the Vice President of the
United States, acting as President of the Senate,
will not have a vote except in circumstances
where there is a tie in the Senate.
At that point,
the VP gets to come into the Senate and cast a vote.
I've seen this happen a number of times
where the Senate has seen that a tie was at least possible.
The Vice President of the United States will be summoned
and he'll come in, sit in the chair
and if in fact we end up in a tie,
the Vice President casts the tie-breaking vote.
In the absence of that circumstance,
While the Vice President has the authority
to sit as the presiding officer at any given moment
and can make procedural judgment calls
on substantive matters,
the Vice President doesn't get to cast a vote,
unless there is a tie in the Senate.
The fifth clause of Article 1, Section 3
makes clear that the Senate will have the power
to adopt its own rules
and also to choose someone to serve
as the president pro tempore
or the person who will preside in the Senate
in the absence of the Vice President,
who as a matter of right under the Constitution
may preside at any moment he's in the chair
and also to choose other officers
within the United States Senate.
The sixth clause of Article 1, Section 3
gives the Senate the power to try all impeachments.
Now we have to remember the distinction
between impeaching an officer of the United States
and removing a president of the United States.
Think of the impeachment,
which takes place in the House of Representatives
and requires only a simple majority vote.
Think of that as a charge or an accusation,
or perhaps a set of civil claims.
This is something that accuses the officer in question
of some type of wrongdoing
based on high crimes and misdemeanors.
High crimes and misdemeanors
is a term that refers to old English tradition
that acknowledged certain offenses against the state,
against the body politic
as distinguished from something
that might be a more private offense, a private matter.
The term misdemeanor was used a little bit more broadly
in common law England than it is today.
And as a result of that,
it just referred to a broad body of offenses
that basically would be understood as synonymous
with the term high crimes today.
The Senate may not remove anyone from office
in an impeachment trial without two thirds
of the senators voting for that removal.
Voting to convict that person
of the offense impeached or charged
by the House of Representatives.
And this Clause 6 of Article 1, Section 3
also makes clear that
when the President of the United States has been impeached,
the Chief Justice of the United States
presides over the impeachment proceedings in the Senate.
Clause 7 of Article 1, Section 3
makes clear that the power the Senate has
in an impeachment trial
extends no further than the disqualification
of that person to hold future office,
in addition to the removal of the officer
in question from office.
It doesn't extend further than that.
And in fact, the person impeached and removed
still stands potentially accountable
for any civil or criminal charges or accusations
that might be brought against him.
So as we see, Clauses 1 through 5
of Article 1, Section 3
are relatively straightforward.
They're not terribly controversial,
they pretty much do what they purport to do on their face.
Clauses 6 and 7 of Article 1, Section 3,
by contrast are a little bit more open
to different interpretations
and a little bit more of the focus
of debates that have occurred in recent years
and in recent decades.
There is some dispute about what exactly it means
to commit a high crime or misdemeanor,
which is the basis of course,
for charging someone or impeaching them
and then removing them as this clause contemplates.
There are those who believe
that it requires the accusation
of an actual criminal offense
and of a particular type of criminal offense
against the body politic.
There are others who say that it means quite simply,
whatever a simple majority in the House of Representatives
and two thirds of the US senators might think that it means.
There's been a lot of discussion about this
and this is an interesting question from the standpoint
that it's never going to be litigated in court.
The Supreme Court of the United States
is not ever going to decide this
nor is any other court in the United States competent
to decide this issue.
The United States Senate
is ultimately the court of impeachment.
It's the only court that has jurisdiction
to decide these cases.
So the Senate itself has to be the body determining
what amounts to a high crime or misdemeanor
and whether that has been committed
in the instance of any particular impeachment alleged.
The American people expect that
members of the United States Senate will do their duty
and in fact, the Constitution itself,
Clause 6 of Article 1, Section 3,
requires senators to take an oath upfront,
being sworn in, in sort of the same way
that jurors are administered an oath
at the beginning of a trial.
It's our obligation to find the correct legal result
and to do what we're supposed to do
without regard to our own personal biases
or our own personal interest.
Now, this is different obviously
than what happens in a civil or criminal courtroom,
where you've got jurors who are typically excluded
if they have any pre-existing familiarity
with the parties at issue,
or very often, even with the subject matter of the dispute.
It is nonetheless incumbent upon us
through the oath that we take to do impartial justice.
To make sure that we're doing the right thing.
That as much as anything, accounts for the fact that
we haven't seen the impeachment power
thus far being used indiscriminately
to remove a President of the United States
without good cause.
I mean, it's been attempted but it hasn't succeeded.
Thank you for joining me
for another episode of The Constitution: Line by Line.
Today we've covered Article 1, Section 3.
Please join us next time.