Expulsion Proceedings Not Resulting in Expulsion
Many expulsion proceedings have been begun by the Senate that did not lead to expulsion. In most cases, the expulsion failed to secure the necessary two-thirds vote; in other cases the Senator in question resigned while proceedings were taking place, presumably because the Senator felt that the proceedings would succeed or that his political career would not survive them regardless. In a few cases, the proceedings ended when a Senator died or his term expired.
Year | Senator | Party | State | Result | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1808 | John Smith | Democrat-Republican | Ohio | Not expelled | Assisted Aaron Burr's western expedition; resigned two weeks after expulsion failed |
1856 | Henry Mower Rice | Democratic | Minnesota | Not expelled | Charged with corruption |
1862 | Lazarus W. Powell | Democratic | Kentucky | Not expelled | Accused of supporting the Confederacy |
1862 | James F. Simmons | Republican | Rhode Island | Resigned | Charged with corruption |
1873 | James W. Patterson | Republican | New Hampshire | Term expired | Charged with corruption |
1893 | William N. Roach | Democratic | North Dakota | Not expelled | Charged with embezzlement; Senate determined that charges were too far in the past |
1905 | John H. Mitchell | Republican | Oregon | Died during proceedings | Charged with corruption |
1906 | Joseph R. Burton | Republican | Kansas | Resigned | Convicted and upheld by the Supreme Court for receiving compensation for intervening with a federal agency |
1907 | Reed Smoot | Republican | Utah | Not expelled | Senate committee asserted that Smoot, as a Mormon, belonged to a religion incompatible with US law; Senate found 43-27 that this was not relevant. |
1919 | Robert M. La Follette, Sr. | Republican | Wisconsin | Not expelled | Charged with disloyalty for a speech opposing entry into World War I; Senate found 50-21 that this was not warranted |
1922 | Truman Handy Newberry | Republican | Michigan | Resigned | Convicted of election fraud, but overturned, for excessive spending in a primary election. |
1924 | Burton K. Wheeler | Democratic | Montana | Not expelled | Indicted for conflict of interest after serving in legal cases to which the United States was a party. Exonerated by Senate 56-5 |
1934 | John H. Overton | Democratic | Louisiana | Not expelled | Investigated for election fraud |
Huey Long | |||||
1942 | William Langer | Republican | North Dakota | Not expelled | Charged with corruption and moral turpitude while Governor of North Dakota; full senate voted against expulsion 52-30 |
1982 | Harrison A. Williams | Democratic | New Jersey | Resigned | Convicted for bribery and conspiracy in the Abscam scandal; resigned before a vote by the full Senate |
1995 | Robert W. Packwood | Republican | Oregon | Resigned | Charged with sexual misconduct and abuse of power; resigned before a Senate vote |
2011 | John Ensign | Republican | Nevada | Resigned | Charged with financial improprieties stemming from an extramarital affair. Resigned before vote. |
Read more about this topic: List Of United States Senators Expelled Or Censured
Famous quotes containing the words expulsion, proceedings and/or resulting:
“The Expulsion from Eden is an act of vindictive womanish spite; the Fall of Man, as recounted in the Bible, comes nearer to the Fall of God.”
—Cyril Connolly (19031974)
“And no one, it seemed, had had the presence of mind
To initiate proceedings or stop the wheel
From the number it was backing away from as it stopped:
It was performing prettily; the puncture stayed unseen....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“I think those Southern writers [William Faulkner, Carson McCullers] have analyzed very carefully the buildup in the South of a special consciousness brought about by the self- condemnation resulting from slavery, the humiliation following the War Between the States and the hope, sometimes expressed timidly, for redemption.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)