By Catherine Bye, Technical Services/Acquisitions Librarian

According to the 5^th edition (1979) Black’s Law Dictionary, impeachment is “a criminal proceeding against a public officer, before a quasi-political court, instituted by a written accusation called “articles of impeachment.”

Recently, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, announced that the House of Representatives will be moving forward with articles of impeachment. The impeachment activity stemmed from the whistle blower complaint concerning the call with Ukraine, which came to light in the summer.

Kelly Smith, a U.S. and San Diego Government Information Librarian at the University of California, San Diego, has created and updates a LibGuide, “U.S. Government Information: Whistleblower,” that tracks and compiles the official documents, tweets, press releases, and other information related to the whistleblower complaint and continues through to the impeachment proceedings. The earliest item listed in this LibGuide dates back to February 12, 2016 with a Press Release relating to a letter written by three U.S. Senators to then-Ukrainian President Poroshenko reaffirming commitment to help Ukraine take on corruption. The most recent posting is from December 9, 2019 relating to Representatives Nadler’s opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearing.

The Library of Congress is also maintaining the “Constitution Annotated” website, which provides online access to the “Constitution of the United States of America:  Analysis and Interpretation”.  It offers a comprehensive overview of how the Constitution has been interpreted over time.

• Annotations and essays related to impeachment under Articles I, II, and III are found here (in particular, Article II, Section 4):  https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/
• Additional information on impeachment is provided on the websites Beyond the Constitution Annotated: Table of Additional Resources: https://constitution.congress.gov/resources/additional-resources/?loclr=bloglaw
• The landing page for the full website is here: https://constitution.congress.gov/?loclr=bloglaw

Check it out! (Whistleblower LibGuide used with permission from Kelly Smith.)