High crimes and misdemeanors
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High crimes and misdemeanors constitutional
The kind of serious misconduct by an official that can justify impeachment — not limited to ordinary criminal offenses.
Technical: The Art. II, §4 standard for impeachment and removal ('Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors'); a term of art drawn from English impeachment practice, covering grave abuses of public trust.
Founding-era note: 'High Crimes and Misdemeanors' was a settled phrase in British parliamentary impeachments long before 1787; the Framers adopted it as an understood term of art.
A dictionary entry is reference: it describes how a term is used. It is not itself binding law. Why that matters →
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