Andrew Johnson Trial

Impeachment is a formal indictment of an official of the executive or judicial branch of the federal government. The indicted individual then goes on trial. If convicted, he or she is removed from office. Only the highest figures in the executive and judicial branches of government--the president, the vice president, cabinet members, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, associate justices of the court, and federal judges--are subject to impeachment, which is carried out by the legislative branch.

The Constitution discusses impeachment in six clauses. Under constitutional provisions, the House of Representatives--the body of government thought to be the most closely tied to the people of the United States--votes on articles of impeachment, which are presented by the House Judiciary Committee. If the House approves the articles, the Senate tries the impeachment.

As of 1995, only 14 individuals had ever had articles of impeachment voted against them, and the two most famous of these--President Andrew Johnson and Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Chase--were not impeached. In 1998, President Bill Clinton became the first U.S. President to be impeached and the second to have impeachment proceedings brought against him.