On Oath or Affirmation

Article 1, Section 3, Clause 6 of our Constitution describes why and how the Senate conducts trials of impeachment.  As Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 65, the ability of a court of impeachment to affect the lives and futures of even the most distinguished members of a community forbids giving that responsibility to only a small group of people.

Any impeachment trial must meet three requirements:

1. that participating Senators be on Oath or Affirmation, in order to impress upon them the extreme seriousness of the occasion
2. that the Chief Justice preside over presidential impeachment trials; to underscore the solemnity of the occasion, and to avoid the possible conflict of interest of a Vice President's presiding over the removal of a President
3. that a  supermajority be needed to convict and remove from office