Changes

Impeachment throughout the 20th century focused on judges, mostly district judges, such as Charles Swayne (1905), George English (1926), and Halsted Ritter (1936). Most of these revolved around abuse of power and corruption. One of the more noteworthy impeachments was Robert Wodrow Archbald, who was on the Commerce Court. He was convicted in 1913 and removed from office for taking gifts to sway his decisions. He was given favorable railroads and real estate deals in exchange for decisions. He was eventually convicted in January 1913, despite his repeated attempts to claim innocence. While the 1920-1930s saw three impeachment cases, there were no impeachment cases between 1936-1986, the longest stretches in US history without any impeachment trials of any government official at the federal level. In the 1980s, there were three impeachment trials of judges (Harry E. Claiborne, Alcee Hastings, and Walter Nixon), all of whom were convicted and removed from office as district judges. These cases had to do with tax evasion, bribery, and perjury. <ref>For more on these impeachments, see: Gerhardt, M. J. (2000). <i>The federal impeachment process: a constitutional and historical analysis (2nd ed)</i>. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.</ref>

The next big federal case was against President Bill Clinton in 1998, as a result of the sexual harassment case in relation to Paula Jones investigation, which also included the Monica Lewinsky affair. This was the first impeachment of a sitting president since Andrew Johnson. The result required a 2/3s majority for his conviction, with Bill Clinton just surviving in a mostly partisan in a February 12, 1999 vote that saw the Senate vote 50 for and 50 against in relation to the charge of obstruction of justice and 55-45 for perjury. After the acquittal of Clinton, in 2009 and 2010 respectively, Samuel B. Kent and Thomas Porteous, who were district judges, also faced impeachment. Both of them were effectively removed from office due to the proceedings, although Samuel Kent was not convicted.<ref>For more on Clinton and the later impeachments, see: Lichtman, A. J. (2017). <i>The case for impeachment (First edition)</i>. New York: Dey St., an imprint of William Morrow. </ref>