United States Senate

===Checks and balances===
[[File:Andrew Johnson impeachment trial.jpg|thumb|The Senate has the power to try impeachments; shown above is [[Theodore R. Davis]]'s drawing of the [[Impeachment of Andrew Johnson|impeachment trial]] of President [[Andrew Johnson]] in 1868; by one vote, the Senate exonerated Johnson on charges of [[high crimes and misdemeanors]].]]
[[File:US Senate Chamber c1873.jpg|thumb|The [[U.S. Senate chamber]], {{Circa|1873}}; two or three [[spittoon]]s are visible by desks.]]
The Constitution provides several unique functions for the Senate that form its ability to "check and balance" the powers of other elements of the federal government. These include the requirement that the Senate may advise and must consent to some of the president's government appointments; also the Senate must consent to all treaties with foreign governments; it tries all impeachments, and it elects the vice president in the event no person gets a majority of the electoral votes.

The president can make [[List of positions filled by presidential appointment with Senate confirmation|certain appointments]] only with the [[advice and consent]] of the Senate. Officials whose appointments require the Senate's approval include members of the Cabinet, heads of most federal executive agencies, [[ambassador]]s, justices of the Supreme Court, and other federal judges. Under Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, a large number of government appointments are subject to potential confirmation; however, Congress has passed legislation to authorize the appointment of many officials without the Senate's consent (usually, confirmation requirements are reserved for those officials with the most significant final decision-making authority). Typically, a nominee is the first subject to a hearing before a Senate committee. Thereafter, the nomination is considered by the full Senate. The majority of nominees are confirmed; however, in a small number of cases each year, Senate committees purposely fail to act on a nomination to block it. In addition, the president sometimes withdraws nominations when they appear unlikely to be confirmed. Because of this, outright rejections of nominees on the Senate floor are infrequent (there have been only nine Cabinet nominees rejected outright in United States history).<ref>{{Cite web |last=King |first=Elizabeth |title=This Is What Happened Last Time a Cabinet Nomination Was Rejected |url=https://time.com/4653593/cabinet-rejection-john-tower/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201210131047/https://time.com/4653593/cabinet-rejection-john-tower/ |archive-date=December 10, 2020 |access-date=April 11, 2020 |website=time.com |date=February 3, 2017 |publisher=Time USA, LLC}}</ref>

The powers of the Senate concerning nominations are, however, subject to some constraints. For instance, the Constitution provides that the president may make an appointment during a [[Recess (motion)|congressional recess]] without the Senate's advice and consent. The [[recess appointment]] remains valid only temporarily; the office becomes vacant again at the end of the next congressional session. Nevertheless, presidents have frequently used recess appointments to circumvent the possibility that the Senate may reject the nominee. Furthermore, as the Supreme Court held in ''[[Myers v. United States]]'', although the Senate's advice and consent are required for the appointment of certain executive branch officials, it is not necessary for their removal.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RS21308.pdf|title=Recess Appointments FAQ|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229043342/https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RS21308.pdf |archive-date=December 29, 2017|access-date=November 20, 2007|publisher=US Senate, Congressional Research Service}}</ref><ref>Ritchie, ''Congress'' p. 178.</ref> [[Recess appointment]]s have faced a significant amount of resistance and in 1960, the U.S. Senate passed a legally non-binding resolution against recess appointments to the Supreme Court.<ref>{{cite journal| title=Recess Appointments To The Federal Judiciary: An Unconstitutional Transformation Of Senate Advice And Consent| first=Steven M.| last=Pyser| url= https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1266&context=jcl| journal=Journal of Constitutional Law| volume=8| issue=1| date=January 2006| pages=61–114| access-date=March 14, 2022| via=Penn Law Legal Scholarship Repository}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| first=Stephen| last=Wermiel| title=SCOTUS for law students (sponsored by Bloomberg Law): Recess appointments and the Court| website=SCOTUSblog.com| date=February 15, 2013| url=https://www.scotusblog.com/2013/02/scotus-for-law-students-sponsored-by-bloomberg-law-recess-appointments-and-the-court/| access-date=March 14, 2022}}</ref>

The Senate also has a role in ratifying treaties. The Constitution provides that the president may only "make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present concur" in order to benefit from the Senate's advice and consent and give each state an equal vote in the process. However, not all international agreements are considered treaties under U.S. domestic law, even if they are considered treaties under international law. Congress has passed laws authorizing the president to conclude [[executive agreement]]s without action by the Senate. Similarly, the president may make [[congressional-executive agreement]]s with the approval of a simple majority in each House of Congress, rather than a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Neither executive agreements nor congressional-executive agreements are mentioned in the Constitution, leading some scholars such as [[Laurence Tribe]] and [[John Yoo]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bolton |first=John R. |date=January 5, 2009 |title=Restore the Senate's Treaty Power |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/opinion/05bolton.html |url-status=live |access-date=February 20, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210107080651/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/opinion/05bolton.html |archive-date=January 7, 2021}}</ref> to suggest that they unconstitutionally circumvent the treaty-ratification process. However, courts have upheld the validity of such agreements.<ref>For an example, and a discussion of the literature, see [[Laurence Tribe]], "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1341856 Taking Text and Structure Seriously: Reflections on Free-Form Method in Constitutional Interpretation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108201719/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1341856 |date=January 8, 2021 }}", ''Harvard Law Review'', Vol. 108, No. 6. (April 1995), pp. 1221–1303.</ref>

The Constitution empowers the House of Representatives to [[impeach]] federal officials for "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" and empowers the Senate to try such impeachments. If the sitting president of the United States is being tried, the [[chief justice of the United States]] presides over the trial. During an impeachment trial, senators are constitutionally required to sit on oath or affirmation. Conviction requires a two-thirds majority of the senators present. A convicted official is automatically removed from office; in addition, the Senate may stipulate that the defendant be banned from holding office. No further punishment is permitted during the impeachment proceedings; however, the party may face criminal penalties in a normal court of law.

The House of Representatives has impeached sixteen officials, of whom seven were convicted (one resigned before the Senate could complete the trial).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Senate_Impeachment_Role.htm#4|title=Complete list of impeachment trials|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101202133604/http://senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Senate_Impeachment_Role.htm |archive-date=December 2, 2010|website=United States Senate|access-date=November 20, 2007}}</ref> Only three presidents have been impeached: [[Andrew Johnson]] in 1868, [[Bill Clinton]] in 1998, and [[Donald Trump]] in 2019 and 2021. The trials of Johnson, Clinton and both Trump trials ended in acquittal; in Johnson's case, the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction.

Under the [[Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twelfth Amendment]], the Senate has the power to elect the vice president if no vice-presidential candidate receives a majority of votes in the [[Electoral College (United States)|Electoral College]]. The Twelfth Amendment requires the Senate to choose from the two candidates with the highest numbers of electoral votes. Electoral College deadlocks are rare. The Senate has only broken a deadlock once; in 1837, it elected [[Richard Mentor Johnson]]. The House elects the president if the Electoral College deadlocks on that choice.