Nixon v. United States case brief

Nixon v. United States case brief summary

506 U.S. 224 (1993)

CASE SYNOPSIS

On writ of certiorari, petitioner appealed order of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirming that petitioner's request for a declaration that his impeachment conviction was void was a nonjusticiable political question.

CASE FACTS
Petitioner, a former federal judge, challenged his impeachment conviction. Petitioner argued the impeachment proceedings violated the authority of the Senate under the Impeachment Clause, U.S. Constitutional Article I, § 3, clause 6, to "try" all impeachments because the whole Senate did not take part in evidentiary hearings.


DISCUSSION

• The Court held the controversy was a nonjusticiable political question as there was a textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to the legislature and a lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standards for resolving it. 
• The Impeachment Clause granted sole authority over impeachments to the Senate, and did not require or provide a means of judicial review. 
• As impeachment was designed to be the only check on the judiciary by the legislature, it was counterintuitive to have judicial review of impeachment proceedings. 
• There were no discoverable standards for judicial review of impeachment proceedings, and fashioning relief was difficult.

CONCLUSION
Order affirming that petitioner's request for invalidation of impeachment was a nonjusticiable political question was affirmed because there was a textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of impeachment to the legislature and a lack of discoverable standards for judicial review of impeachment proceedings.

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