Censure (politics)

Censure is a formal and public reprimand of a government official. It is infrequently used and may be invoked at any level in politics. It is most associated with the US Congress, where it can be used as a form of discipline for members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. In these legislative bodies, censured members must give up any committee chairs they hold, although they are not removed from their elected positions. In addition to the censure as a formal disciplinary action in Congress, non-member censure is a way to shine light on actions Congress decides are inappropriate.

Censure—which was referred to as condemnation, denouncement, or rebuke in the official record prior to the 1970s—is invoked as a resolution. Each House of Congress is responsible for invoking it against its own members. It has also been invoked against other government officials, such as members of the president’s cabinet or the president themself. It may also be invoked at the state level, for example, by members of a political party’s governing body against a member, or against a federal judge.

Background

Congress has invoked censure resolutions against twelve sitting presidents. Four were adopted by majority vote. One president was censured using a House committee report, and another by an amendment to a resolution.

The first censure resolution was levied against Alexander Hamilton, the treasury secretary under President George Washington. He was accused of mismanaging federal loans. Hamilton was not censured because Congress did not have the votes to do so, but the resolution established a precedent for censure.

The first and only president censured by the Senate was Andrew Jackson, who was in office from 1829 to 1837. Jackson was opposed to the Bank of the United States, which was chartered by Congress to manage federal finances. In 1833, he decided the best way to remove its power was to move funds from the institution to several state-chartered banks. The Charter of the Bank of the United States gave the secretary of the treasury the power to move deposits and required the secretary to explain the reason for such a move to Congress. The House had already voted to keep the funds in the national institution, and Treasure Secretary William John Duane refused to act on Jackson’s orders. Jackson removed Duane and appointed Roger Taney as treasury secretary. Taney moved most of the funds while Congress was not in session.

The Senate retaliated by rejecting Taney’s nomination and Jackson’s nominees for government directors of the bank. In March 1834, the Senate adopted a resolution of censure against the president. Jackson viewed censure as a roundabout impeachment.

The four presidents censured by a resolution adopted by both houses of Congress were Jackson, Abraham Lincoln in 1864, James Buchanan in 1860, and William Howard Taft in 1912. Censures that were not adopted were levied against ten presidents as of 2021: John Adams, John Tyler, James Polk, Ulysses Grant, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. Trump had multiple failed censure resolutions. Nixon, Bush, and Obama were the targets of three failed resolutions each.

By the 2020s, the Senate had censured or denounced nine members. Twenty-six House members had been censured. Acts that prompted censure included misuse of office, insulting language, sale of military academy appointments, sexual misconduct, and physical assault of another member in the US Capitol.

Overview

Censure is not mentioned in the Constitution. The power to punish members of Congress is found in Article 1, Section 5, which states, “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.” When the House of Representatives votes in favor of censuring a member, that individual must stand in the well of the House Chamber. The Speaker of the House or the presiding officer reads the censure resolution and its preamble. This serves as a public reprimand for the individual’s actions.

While Congress has claimed the power to censure the president, such resolutions do not carry the weight of law and are merely a public statement condemning the president’s actions. The question of Congress’ power to censure a sitting president has been debated many times. It was raised again in late 2019 when the House impeached President Trump following an investigation into allegations he pressured Ukrainian officials to investigate a family member of his political rival.

Among the most well-known uses of this punishment in American politics is the censure of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy for conduct unbecoming of a senator. McCarthy alarmed the public in 1950 when he claimed that he had a list of 205 communists who had “infiltrated” the US State Department. The claim increased the profile of the previously little-known Republican, who continued to make similar statements over the next few years. When his party gained control of the Senate in 1953, McCarthy was named chair of the Committee on Government Operations and Subcommittee on Investigations. He held public hearings in which he accused innocent people of working against the nation, ruining careers and reputations. After McCarthy accused officers in the US Army of communist subversion, he was investigated and exposed for making baseless charges against individuals. On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted sixty-five to twenty-two to condemn the legislator. Condemnation was the equivalent of censure at the time.

Following the second impeachment of President Trump—in which the Senate did not convict him of inciting a January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol—several state and local Republican groups censured members who voted to impeach or convict the Republican president. State Republican committees censured seven Republican senators and representatives. Party leaders stated they did not agree with and disapproved of the vote to convict. County GOP officials censured five Republican members of Congress.

In the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol Hill violence, in November 2021, Congress invoked a censure against Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar. Gosar had posted a video on several of his social media accounts depicting a violent act being committed against Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Gosar was removed from two congressional committees.

In 2023, the GOP-majority House of Representatives passed a vote of censure against California Democrat Adam Schiff. This was done in response to his lead role in the impeachment effort against former President Trump. The resolution passed along strict party lines, with 213 Republicans voting for the censure and 209 Democrats voting against it.

Major political parties have also used censure to punish perceived non-conformity of elected officials within their ranks. In 2022, the Arizona Democratic Party voted to censure then-Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema for voting to maintain the current practice of filibuster, an administrative tactic used to deny a legislative bill from advancing. Also in 2022, the Republican National Committee censured Congresspersons Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois for their participation in congressional committees investigating the January 6 Capitol incident. In 2023, Adam Schiff, Rashida Tlaib, and Jamaal Bowman faced censure in the House of Representatives.

Bibliography

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“Andrew Jackson, Presidential Censure and the Constitution.” National Constitution Center, 28 Mar. 2021, constitutioncenter.org/blog/can-a-president-really-by-censured-the-answer-is-yes-and-no. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

Bredemeier, Ken. “Republican Groups Censure Party Lawmakers Who Voted to Impeach, Convict Trump.” Voice of America, 16 Feb. 2021, www.voanews.com/usa/us-politics/republican-groups-censure-party-lawmakers-who-voted-impeach-convict-trump. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

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“Censured but Not Impeached.” University of Virginia Miller Center, millercenter.org/the-presidency/impeachment/censured-not-impeached. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

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Norwood, Candice. “What Does It Mean to Censure a Politician?” PBS, 3 Dec. 2019, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-does-it-mean-to-censure-a-politician. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

Quinn, Melissa. "House Votes to Censure Congressman Paul Gosar for Violent Video in Rare Formal Rebuke." CBS News, 18 Nov. 2021, www.cbsnews.com/news/paul-gosar-censure-committees-house-aoc-video. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

“Resolutions to Censure the President: Procedure and History.” Congressional Research Service, 1 Feb. 2021, fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45087.pdf. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

Roos, Dave. “How Many US Presidents Have Faced Censure?” History, 5 Feb. 2021, www.history.com/news/censure-us-presidents-congress. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

Sforza, Lauren, and Julia Shapero. “What Does It Mean if Someone Is Censured?” The Hill, 7 Nov. 2023, thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/4050819-what-does-it-mean-if-someone-is-censured. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

Treisman, Rachel. “Arizona Democrats Have Censured Kyrsten Sinema over Her Pro-Filibuster Vote.” NPR, 22 Jan. 2022, www.npr.org/2022/01/22/1075088298/kyrsten-sinema-censure-arizona-democrats-filibuster-vote. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.