Impeachment

Impeachment is the process of formally charging a public official with misconduct in office that can result in the official being removed from office.

In Oklahoma, the impeachment process is enshrined in the Constitution and statutes  and is reserved for elected statewide office holders. The Oklahoma Constitution sets out five offenses that can be the grounds for impeachment: willful neglect of duty, corruption in office, drunkenness, incompetency, or any offense involving moral turpitude committed while in office. 

The impeachment process begins with the Oklahoma House of Representatives creating  a resolution for articles of impeachment. The entire Oklahoma House of Representatives votes on the resolution and needs a simple majority of the members present to be approved. If the resolution passes the House, the Senate must be called into order in a special session to sit as a jury of the impeachment proceedings presided by the Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.  The vote of impeachment needs a two-thirds majority of Senators present to impeach.

The last impeachment proceedings in Oklahoma were held in 2004 when the Oklahoma House of Representatives impeached insurance commissioner Carroll Fisher, who had been charged with embezzlement in criminal court. Fisher resigned before the Senate convened as a court of impeachment. Prior to that, the most recent impeachment was during the Oklahoma Supreme Court Scandal of 1965. which led to two Supreme Court justices resigning and one being impeached. In the 1910s and 1920s, two statewide elected officeholders – a Corporation Commissioner and the State Printer – and two Governors – Jack Walton and Henry Simpson Johnson – were impeached and removed from office.

Federally, the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to impeach federal officials for treason, bribery, and “other high crimes and misdemeanors.” The House of Representatives brings articles of impeachment against an official; if adopted by a simple majority vote, the official has been impeached but is removed from office only if found guilty by two-thirds of the Senate following an impeachment trial.