Censure in the United States

Censure is a formal, and public, group condemnation of an individual, often a group member, whose actions runs counter to the group's acceptable standards for individual behavior. In the United States, governmental censure is done when a body's members wish to publicly reprimand the President of the United States, a member of Congress, or a judge. It is a formal statement of disapproval.

The United States Constitution, while specifically granting impeachment powers to both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and also granting both congressional bodies the power to expel their own members, does not mention censure. Congress adopted a resolution allowing censure, which is "stronger than a simple rebuke, but not as strong as expulsion."

Members of Congress who have been censured are required to give up any committee chairs they hold, but are not removed from office. In general, each house of Congress is responsible for invoking censure against its own members; censure against other government officials is not common. Because censure is not specifically mentioned as the accepted form of reprimand, many censure actions against members of Congress may be listed officially as rebuke, condemnation, or denouncement.

Presidential censures

In 1800, Representative Edward Livingston of New York introduced a censure motion against President John Adams.

Only one U.S. president has been censured by the United States Senate. In 1834, while under Whig control, the Senate censured Democratic President Andrew Jackson for withholding documents relating to his actions in defunding the Bank of the United States. As a partial result of public opposition to the censure itself, the Senate came under control of the Democratic Party in the next election cycle, and the censure was expunged in 1837.

As one historian has written:

During the last session of Congress under Jackson, Democrats tried to delete from their record the censure of their hero. The Whigs were just as eager to keep the censure as the Democrats were to get rid of it. The vote on censure was taken after thirteen hours of debate. Twenty-four senators voted to delete it; nineteen voted to retain it. The censure was ringed in black and officially deleted from the minutes.

In 1842, Whigs attempted to impeach President John Tyler following a long period of hostility with the president. When that action could not get through Congress, a select Senate committee dominated by Whigs censured Tyler instead.

In 1848, the United States House of Representatives voted to censure President James Polk, on the grounds that the Mexican-American War had been "unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President of the United States."

In 1864, the Senate considered a condemnation of President Abraham Lincoln for allowing an elected member of the House to hold an Army commission; it voted 24-12 to refer the matter to a special committee, but no further action was taken.

In 1998, resolutions to censure President Bill Clinton for his role in the Monica Lewinsky scandal were introduced.

Senatorial censures

See also: List of United States Senators expelled or censured

The U.S. Senate has developed procedures for taking disciplinary action against senators through such measures as formal censure or actual expulsion from the Senate. The Senate has two basic forms of punishment available to it: expulsion, which requires a two-thirds vote; or censure, which requires a majority vote. Censure is a formal statement of disapproval. While censure (sometimes referred to as condemnation or denouncement) is less severe than expulsion in that it does not remove a senator from office, it is nevertheless a formal statement of disapproval that can have a powerful psychological effect on a member and on that member's relationships in the Senate.

In the history of the Senate, 10 U.S. Senators have been censured, the most famous being Joseph McCarthy. Their transgressions have ranged from breach of confidentiality to fighting in the Senate chamber and more generally for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute”.

House censures

See also: List of United States Representatives expelled, censured, or reprimanded

In the House of Representatives, censure is essentially a form of public humiliation carried out on the House floor. As the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives reads out a resolution rebuking the member for the specified misconduct, the member must stand in the House well and listen to it. This process has been described as a morality play in miniature.

In the history of the House, censure has been used 23 times, and most of the cases arose during the 19th century. In the modern history of the United States House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (since 1966), censure has been used five times, most recently in December 2010 against Charles B. Rangel.

Cabinet censures

Augustus Hill Garland, Attorney General in Grover Cleveland's administration, was censured in 1886 for failing to provide documents about the firing of a federal prosecutor.

Further reading

• Final Report of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress (December 1993):Enforcement of Ethical Standards in Congress
• Expulsion, Censure, Reprimand, and Fine: Legislative Discipline in the House of Representatives Congressional Research Service
• Butler, Anne M., and Wendy Wolff, United States Senate Election, Expulsion and Censure Cases, 1793–1900 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1995)