With the announcement of a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, there is an obvious uptick in impeachment and how it works. There are a lot of moving parts to an impeachment, so here are a few helpful guides, websites and resources to help you get your feet under you as you start to understand the debate, the process and the players.

1. It starts in the House of Representatives. Here is a guide from the House itself that talks about the House's role, the history of impeachment and how the Constitution frames the process. Here is a Congressional Research Service report on how the process works, updated earlier this month.

2. Once the House votes for impeachment, the next stop is in the Senate, where a trial is held. Here is a series of links from the Senate page laying out procedures and providing background on the impeachments that have been heard by the Senate (including not just presidents, but judges and members of Congress).

3. Of course, the most famous impeachments are the presidential ones. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton both had impeachment trials in the Senate (with Nixon resigning before it got that far).

4. That is just the beginning. There is a world of research out there on impeachment, including at the state level. Numerous libraries have already compiled guides on resources that can further help you untangle the process and the historical context. Here is one from the University of Washington and here from the University of South Carolina which lists recent books on impeachment (all of which are available at UW Law as well!)

5. More specifically, here is a guide to the impeachment inquiry (so far) against Donald Trump updated and maintained by GovTrack.US

6. Of course, there are also many, many books about impeachment. To get you started, here is a basic Library Catalog search highlighting impeachment books available in the Law Library.  For additional tips on researching impeachment, check out this brief guide from HeinOnline, the monstrously useful legal database.

This should get you started on the road to becoming an impeachment expert and keep you up-to-date with the current impeachment inquiry. If you want to research a specific aspect of impeachment or other Constitutional Law issues, contact a law librarian!

Submitted by Kristopher Turner on November 5, 2019

This article appears in the categories: Law Library