Article II of the U.S. Constitution concludes with one short sentence about impeachment: “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.” That provision has sparked controversy from the earliest days of the American republic right up to the present day, and much of the controversy has concerned exactly what constitutes impeachable conduct, or what qualifies as “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Frank O. Bowman III's new book by the same name seeks to use historical analysis to shed light on this important and timely question.
Bowman's book is largely historical, and in fact the author admits up front, “There is a lot of history here” (3). Indeed, in trying to demystify what “high crimes and misdemeanors” are, the book traces over four centuries of British impeachments, starting in 1376. From there, the discussion turns to impeachment precedents in colonial America and then to the deliberations of the American founders, who established a process whereby the U.S. House of Representatives votes on articles of impeachment, then the U.S. Senate votes on whether to convict and remove the official from office.
The book then reviews impeachment across the history of the U.S. Bowman devotes chapters to the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in the nineteenth century and to “the strange case of William Jefferson Clinton” (210), as well as one to Richard Nixon, who resigned from office just two days after Republican Members of Congress told him that his impeachment and removal from office were near certainties (180). Bowman also discusses the 16 less well-known impeachment proceedings against other officials over the years, including members of the judiciary at various levels, as well as cases concerning a Senator and a Cabinet official that led to jurisdictional concerns about the reach of Congress's impeachment power.
Having covered that considerable history, Bowman seeks to distill from it what exactly impeachable conduct entails. On his view, the impeachment power is very flexible, such that “we can impeach a president whenever we should” (235). And for Bowman, that normative assessment should be based on political and constitutional norms rather than narrow legal considerations. He says, “The paramount lesson of this book is that impeachment is, and was always intended to be, a means of protecting the constitution in the broad sense” (296). Ultimately, impeachable behavior is whatever Congress decides qualifies as such. For Bowman, it need not be an indictable crime but rather just something that impairs presidential legitimacy. He also says that “in the case of irreconcilable conflict between the executive and the legislature over the constitutional future of the country, the legislature has the right to use impeachment to ensure that its view prevails” (252). Beyond those general categories, Bowman devotes several chapters to the particulars of impeachment for obstruction of justice, abuse of the pardon power, lying, and corruption.
The book's final chapter considers what this means for Donald Trump. Bowman says, “the list of Trump's offenses against constitutional propriety and reasonable expectations of presidential behavior is dishearteningly diverse and includes conduct in virtually all the categories of conduct historically identified as ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’” (297). Bowman's book was written before Robert Mueller's report was released, but it sketches possible arguments for impeachment based on Trump being compromised by Russia, obstruction of justice, subversion of the justice system, abuse of the pardon power, electoral misconduct, corruption, gross maladministration, abuse of power, injury to foreign policy interests, attacks on the press and norms of civil discourse, and dishonesty. Despite those many charges, Bowman is skeptical that Trump will actually be impeached, because the current reality of sharply divided political parties in Congress makes significant bipartisan agreement unlikely. And even if the Democratic House were to impeach Trump on a largely party-line vote, there is little chance of obtaining the two-thirds vote in the Senate that would be required to convict and remove him from office.
Bowman's book is very thorough and well-documented. It is also very well written and even engaging, no mean feat given that so much of it is devoted to careful analysis of old precedents. The book should appeal to scholars of American politics, history, and law, as well as to those seeking to understand whether the current president's controversial conduct warrants impeachment.
