“On the one hand, as a matter of institutional norms, this is the biggest negative statement a house of congress can make against the president or anybody else. “My gut instinct is that censure is both too powerful and too powerless at the same time,” he said. When it comes to presidents, censure occupies a murky territory, Magarian told PBS NewsHour. More commonly, censure resolutions are adopted by Congress or state legislatures to punish other lawmakers. Lawmakers moved to censure Jackson for withholding documents requested by lawmakers relating to his decision to defund the Second Bank of the United States. MORE: Read the full House Democratic report on the impeachment inquiry Has a president ever by censured by Congress?Ī Senate resolution against Andrew Jackson in 1834 provides the “clearest instance of a successful presidential censure,” according to the Congressional Research Service. But lawmakers can go on record stating their disapproval. It does not require Congress to hold hearings or prove their case to the public. “The inquiry, followed by a resolution on censure based on the inquiry would leave the Democrats in a stronger position than they would be if they sent it over to the Senate and went through a messy four to six-week process,” William Galston, senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, told PBS NewsHour.Ī possible Senate trial, Galston argued, could distract from the Democratic primary and allow Trump to use impeachment to pitch a sympathetic narrative to the public ahead of his reelection bid.Ĭensure requires a lower investment than impeachment, said Jessica Levinson, a law professor with Loyola Marymount University. Democrats can go on the record against the president’s actions without facing losing at a Senate trial. Amid the inquiry into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, censure has been discussed among legal experts and lawmakers as an alternative to impeachment. The Democrat-led House is likely to impeach Trump, but the Republican-led Senate is unlikely to remove him from office. Impeachment and subsequent removal from office are the ultimate penalty lawmakers can place on a president. Why are we talking about censure rather than impeachment? Such a resolution is a rebuke, but does not carry any material punishment like removal from office. The House and Senate have adopted internal rules that allow them to draft and approve a censure resolution, which provides a public record disapproving of an official’s actions. Unlike impeachment, censure is not a power provided by the Constitution, said Gregory Magarian, a professor of law at Washington University in St. As the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump enters a new round of hearings, one idea has been discussed as a way to come out against the president short of impeachment - censure.Ĭensure is a formal disapproval that can be adopted by one, or both chambers of Congress.

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