>>4739606 aye, Sir.

we enter a war of faith..

Hold Fast.

Worst is yet to come.

Recall of Legislators and the Removal of Members of Congress from Office

Congressional Research Service

Summary

Under the United States Constitution and congressional practice, Members of Congress may have

their services ended prior to the normal expiration of their constitutionally established terms of

office by their resignation or death, or by action of the house of Congress in which they are a

Member by way of an “expulsion,” or by a finding that in accepting a subsequent “incompatible”

public office, the Member would be deemed to have vacated his congressional seat.

Under Article I, Section 5, clause 2, of the Constitution, a Member of Congress may be removed

from office before the normal expiration of his or her constitutional term by an “expulsion” from

the Senate (if a Senator) or from the House of Representatives (if a Representative) upon a formal

vote on a resolution agreed to by two-thirds of the Members of that body present and voting.

While there are no specific grounds for an expulsion expressed in the Constitution, expulsion

actions in both the House and the Senate have generally concerned cases of perceived disloyalty

to the United States, or the conviction of a criminal statutory offense which involved abuse of

one’s official position. Each house has broad authority as to the grounds, nature, timing, and

procedure for an expulsion of a Member. However, policy considerations, as opposed to questions

of authority, have appeared to restrain the Senate and House in the exercise of expulsion when it

might be considered as infringing on the electoral process, such as when the electorate knew of

the past misconduct under consideration and still elected or re-elected the Member.

As to removal by recall, the United States Constitution does not provide for nor authorize the

recall of United States officers such as Senators, Representatives, or the President or Vice

President, and thus no Member of Congress has ever been recalled in the history of the United

States. The recall of Members was considered during the time of the drafting of the federal

Constitution in 1787, but no such provisions were included in the final version sent to the states

for ratification, and the specific drafting and ratifying debates indicate an express understanding

of the framers and ratifiers that no right or power to recall a Senator or Representative in

Congress exists under the Constitution. Although the Supreme Court has not needed to directly

address the subject of recall of Members of Congress, other Supreme Court decisions, as well as

the weight of other judicial and administrative decisions, rulings, and opinions, indicate that (1)

the right to remove a Member of Congress before the expiration of his or her constitutionally

established term of office is one which resides exclusively in each house of Congress as expressly

delegated in the expulsion clause of the United States Constitution, and (2) the length and number

of the terms of office for federal officials, established and agreed upon by the states in the

Constitution creating that federal government, may not be unilaterally changed by an individual

state, such as through the enactment of a recall provision or a term limitation for a United States

Senator or Representative. Under Supreme Court constitutional interpretation, since individual

states never had the original sovereign authority to unilaterally change the terms and conditions of

service of federal officials agreed to and established in the Constitution, such a power could not

be “reserved” under the Tenth Amendment. Even the dissenters in the Supreme Court decision on

the Tenth Amendment and term limits, who would have found a “reserved” authority in the states

regarding “qualifications” of Members of Congress, conceded that the exclusive authority to

remove a sitting Member is delegated to each house in the expulsion clause of the Constitution,

and that with respect to “a power of recall … the Framers denied to the States [such power] when

they specified the terms of Members of Congress.”

This report has been and will be revised and updated as new decisional material or administrative

opinions warrant.