Offices and Officers of the Constitution, Part III: The Appointments, Impeachment, Commissions, and Oath or Affirmation Clauses

[This post is co-authored with Seth Barrett Tillman.]

The Constitution of 1788’s original seven articles include twenty-two provisions that refer to “Offices” and “Officers.” Since 2008, Tillman has been engaged in the continuing project: an analysis of the Constitution’s “Office”- and “Officer”-language. Blackman joined this intellectual project about six years ago. Much of our research has already appeared in law review articles, amicus briefs, opinion editorials, and other writings. But we did not have a single compendium that systematically articulated our position. Initially, we considered writing a single law review article that touched on all aspects of our work, but we quickly realized that approach would far be too long for such a publication. In 2020, we adopted a new strategy: we would publish a ten-part series that would explain how we approach the offices and officers of the Constitution. And we are grateful to the editors of the South Texas Law Review, who committed to this multi-year endeavor. 

We published Parts I and II in 2021. The first installment introduced the series. The second installment identified four approaches to understand the Constitution’s divergent “Office”- and “Officer”-language.  Parts III and IV will soon be sent to the printer. We have posted a near-final version of Part III to SSRN. (Part IV will be posted shortly). This third installment focuses on the four provisions of the Constitution of 1788 that use the phrase “Officers of the United States”: the Appointments Clause, the Impeachment Clause, the Commissions Clause, and the Oath or Affirmation Clause. 

The article is long—106 pages. We tried to be thorough and complete. Here is the abstract:

This Article is the third installment of a planned ten-part series that provides the first comprehensive examination of the offices and officers of the Constitution. The first installment introduced

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