Retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna said the two-thirds vote to convict in an impeachment trial should be based on all members of the Senate, regardless of their participation.
Azcuna said impeachment is not an ordinary voting procedure as it results in unseating an elected and accountable official, and requires a higher threshold of agreement than routine business.
“The supermajority rule protects against factional and partisan abuse. The framers of the supermajority impeachment clause were reacting to a specific fear that impeachment could become a tool for a transient legislative majority to remove a political rival or an official from a disfavored party, effectively overturning an election result through legislative fiat, rather than through the ballot box,” he said.
He said requiring the two-thirds vote of all members would ensure that the conviction of an impeachable official is based on a coalition that transcends ordinary partisan lines.
“It signals that the wrongdoing is serious and broadly, not merely, factionally recognized. It preserves separation of powers and checks legislative overreach,” he added.
Azcuna also said the two-thirds vote requirement does not deter accountability and in fact ensures that the impeachment power is exercised responsibly.
“It encourages deliberation over expediency, a conviction requiring broad consensus,” he said.
He said that if the threshold is reduced to a simple majority, it would reward speed and numbers over persuasion and proof, making the trial redundant.
He also said the two-thirds vote requirement protects against a “thin and unrepresentative conviction.”
He said that if the denominator is based on the participating or present members, this could reduce the two-thirds to a simple majority of the Senate.
“That is not the purpose of the internal check of a threshold, and the threshold must be fixed, not variable. It must be determinable from the start. It cannot be something that will be figured out as we go along, depending on how many are present,” he said.
He said the requirement is not a technicality, not a fluke, and reflects deliberate judgment that impeachment conviction requires cross-factional consensus, not just the assent of a bare majority.
“It is this feature, more than any other, that keeps impeachment a remedy for genuine and serious misconduct, rather than a routine weapon of partisan competition,” he said.
Azcuna is the fourth of the amici curiae to share his views on the denominator for the two-thirds vote to convict in an impeachment trial on Wednesday.