Impeachment manager

"House Manager" redirects here. For theater operations, see House management.

An impeachment manager is a legislator appointed to serve as a prosecutor in an impeachment trial. They are also often called "House managers" or "House impeachment manager" when appointed from a legislative chamber that is called a "House of Representatives".

United States

Federal

 

House impeachment managers for the 2009 trial of Judge Samuel B. Kent stand together before transferring the articles of impeachment to the Senate. (Left to right: Bob Goodlatte, Adam Schiff, Jim Sensenbrenner, Zoe Lofgren)

In federal impeachment trials in the United States, which are held before the United States Senate after an impeachment by the United States House of Representatives, the United States House of Representatives appoints impeachment managers, a committee of members of the House who, together, act as the prosecutors in the impeachment trial.^[1]

While they are always approved by House vote, how the initial decision of who serves as a managers is arrived at has differed between impeachments. In some impeachments, the House managers have been chosen upon the recommendation of the Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary.^[2] Another way that has been used is by having the whole house decide by balloting who should serve.^[3] In some other impeachment, the speaker of the House has chosen the slate of impeachment managers that were thereafter approved by House vote.^[4]

State

Some states, such as Pennsylvania,^[5] follow the federal model of having members of the lower chamber of the legislature serve as impeachment managers in impeachment trials held in the upper camber.

In some states, such as California and Indiana, all articles of impeachment must be authored by impeachment managers who will then prosecute those articles.^[6]

Impeachment managers were used in impeachments in some of the American colonies during the colonial era of the United States.^[7]

United Kingdom

Impeachment managers were a component of impeachment in the United Kingdom, a now-largely obsolete process.

References

1. "U.S. Senate: About Impeachment". www.senate.gov. United States Senate Historical Office. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
2. "The Heritage Guide to the Constitution". The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
3. Hinds, Asher C. (March 4, 1907). HINDS' PRECEDENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES INCLUDING REFERENCES TO PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION, THE LAWS, AND DECISIONS OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE (PDF). United States Congress. pp. 857–858. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
4. Multiple sources:
   • "Pelosi Names Impeachment Managers". Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. January 15, 2020. from the original on January 15, 2020. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
   • Wilkie, Christina (January 14, 2020). "Pelosi is set to send Trump impeachment articles to the Senate on Wednesday". CNBC. from the original on January 15, 2020. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
   • Timm, Jane C.; Shabad, Rebecca (January 15, 2020). "House sends impeachment articles to Senate, Pelosi names trial managers". NBC News. from the original on January 15, 2020. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
   • Naylor, Brian (15 January 2020). "House Approves Impeachment Managers, Votes To Transmit Articles For Senate Trial". 88.5 WFDD. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
   • Foran, Clare (15 January 2020). "What is an impeachment manager? | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
   • Behrmann, Savannah (February 8, 2021). "Who's who in Trump's 2nd impeachment: Key players from Rep. Jamie Raskin to attorney David Schoen". USA Today. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
5. Micek, John L.; December 12, Pennsylvania Capital-Star (12 December 2019). "House Dem Dermody was there for Pa. judge's impeachment in 1994. It has lessons for today | Thursday Morning Coffee". Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Retrieved 26 December 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
6. Multiple sources:
   • Government Code Section 3022
   • Webb, Jon (December 17, 2019). "Impeachment: In Indiana, how do you remove a mayor from office? | Webb". Courier & Press. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
7. Hoffer, Peter C.; Hull, N. E. H. (1978). "The First American Impeachments" (PDF). The William and Mary Quarterly. 35 (4): 653–667. doi:10.2307/1923209. ISSN 0043-5597. Retrieved 28 December 2022.