| Venue: | SCOTUS |
| Facts: | Nixon was a federal district judge accused of bribery, and was tried by the senate and convicted. The information-gathering of the trial proceeding was performed by a small committee of senators. Nixon is worried that this doesn't count as a "trial." |
| Posture: | Nixon sues, seeking declaratory judgment that he had to be tried by the whole senate. District court finds this nonjusticiable, affirmed on appeal. Cert granted. |
| Issue: | Is this a political question? |
| Holding: | Yes. Affirmed. |
| Rule: | It's a political question where there is a textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to a coordinate political department. |
| Reasoning: | Art I § 3 says that "the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments." This is an explicit grant of authority to the senate, which menas that the courts don't have the power upset it. And, incidentally, we don't want convicted judges to be able to appeal their convictions to the judiciary: that undermines this check on judicial power. The word "try" doesn't place limits on the senate's ability to set its own procedures. |
| Dicta: | White, concurring: let's not ditch this issue entirely-- this result is fine, but we can certainly think of some hypothetical Senate conduct that would be violative of the notion of "trying" the impeachment. |