Nixon v. United States

Facts

Walter Nixon was Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. A jury convicted him of two counts of making false statements before a federal grand jury, and he was sentenced to prison. The grand jury inquiry arose from reports that he had accepted a gratuity from a businessman in exchange for asking a local district attorney to halt the prosecution of the businessman's son. Nixon refused to resign, so he kept collecting his judicial salary while in prison. On May 10, 1989, the House of Representatives adopted three articles of impeachment. The first two charged false testimony before the grand jury. The third charged him with bringing disrepute on the Federal Judiciary. The Senate invoked its Impeachment Rule XI, under which a committee of Senators receives evidence and takes testimony. The committee held four days of hearings, and 10 witnesses, including Nixon, testified. It gave the full Senate a complete transcript and a report on the uncontested facts and the evidence on contested facts. Nixon and the House managers filed final briefs and argued to the full Senate. Nixon made a personal appeal, and Senators asked questions. The Senate voted by more than two-thirds to convict on the first two articles, and the presiding officer entered judgment removing him from office.

Issues

1. Is a claim that Senate Rule XI, which lets a committee of Senators take evidence, violates the Impeachment Trial Clause's grant to the Senate of the sole power to try impeachments a justiciable claim that courts may decide?
2. Does the word “try” in the Impeachment Trial Clause supply a judicially manageable standard or an identifiable textual limit on how the Senate conducts an impeachment trial?

Holding

Nixon's challenge to the Senate's use of a committee to hear evidence under Rule XI is a nonjusticiable political question. The Impeachment Trial Clause commits the sole power to try impeachments to the Senate, and the word “try” is not an identifiable textual limit on the Senate's procedures.