Although Impeachment in the United States is very rare, it does happen from time to time and it needs to start happening more often.
Impeachment in the United States is an expressed power of the legislature which allows for formal charges to be brought against a civil officer of government for conduct committed in office. The actual trial on those charges, and subsequent removal of an official on conviction on those charges, is separate from the act of impeachment itself.
Impeachment is analogous to indictment in regular court proceedings, while trial by the other house is analogous to the trial before judge and jury in regular courts. Typically, the lower house of the legislature will impeach the official and the upper house will conduct the trial.
At the federal level, Article Two of the United States Constitution (Section 4) states that "The President, Vice President, and all other civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors."
The House of Representatives has the sole power of impeaching, while the United States Senate has the sole power to try all impeachments. The removal of impeached officials is automatic upon conviction in the Senate.
Impeachment can also occur at the state level; state legislatures can impeach state officials, including governors, according to their respective state constitutions.
In writing Article II, Section Four, George Mason had favored impeachment for "maladministration" (incompetence), but James Madison, who favored impeachment only for criminal behavior, carried the issue. Hence, cases of impeachment may be undertaken only for "treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors."
However, some scholars, such as Kevin Gutzman, have disputed this view and argue that the phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors" was intended to have a much more expansive meaning (see, for example, Kevin Gutzman's The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution, which has an extensive discussion of this question).
The Congress traditionally regards impeachment as a power to use only in extreme cases; the House of Representatives has actually initiated impeachment proceedings only 62 times since 1789. Two cases did not come to trial because the individuals had left office.
Actual impeachments of only the following 17 federal officers have taken place. Of these, 13 were federal judges: Ten district court, two court of appeals (one of whom also sat on the Commerce Court), and one Supreme Court Associate Justice (Samuel Chase).
Of the other four, two were Presidents (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, both acquitted), one was a Cabinet secretary (Secretary of War William W. Belknap, acquitted after he had resigned), and one was a U.S. Senator (William Blount).
Of the 17 impeached officials, seven were convicted. One, former judge Alcee Hastings, was elected as a member of the House of Representatives after being removed from office.
The 1799 impeachment of Senator William Blount of Tennessee stalled on the grounds that the Senate lacked jurisdiction over him. Because, in a separate action unrelated to the impeachment procedure, the Senate had already expelled Blount, the lack of jurisdiction may have been either because Blount was no longer a Senator, or because Senators are not "civil officers" of the federal government who are subject to impeachment.
No other member of Congress has ever been impeached, although the Constitution does give authority to either house to expel members, which each has done on occasion, effectively removing the individual from functioning as a representative or senator. Notably, however, expulsion, unlike impeachment, cannot bar an individual from holding future office, as can be seen in the case of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., who subsequently won re-election to the very seat from which he had been expelled (see also Powell v. McCormack).
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