10 May 2021: Analysis - No Constitutional Barriers to Governor's Impeachment

In New York, an impeachable offense is whatever the Legislature wants it to be

This analysis piece describes the standards, or in New York's case, the lack of standards for impeaching the state's governor. The following excerpt condenses the article's entire discussion down into two paragraphs:

The Legislature occasionally has offered guidance on this subject over the centuries. But there’s only one precedent that really matters — the 1913 impeachment of Gov. William Sulzer, the lone impeachment of a governor in New York history. And the takeaway from that case was simple: An impeachable offense is whatever members of the Assembly serving at any moment in time think it should be.

“You could impeach a person walking down the street. It’s such an incredibly vague standard,” said former state Sen. Michael Balboni, who examined the legal history of the subject in the 1980s. “Impeachment is a political process, not a criminal one.”

This revelation gives credence to the assessment the Assembly's current impeachment probe is a 'sham'. With that kind of historical and constitutional carte blanche, lawmakers could already have impeached Governor Cuomo if they were serious about doing so.

The article presents historical information about Governor William Sulzer's 1913 impeachment, which made him the only New York Governor to ever be removed from office.