“The House makes up new rules almost weekly, using special rule resolutions reported by the Rules Committee and adopted by the House to fast-track matters outside the regular order,” said Donald R. Wolfensberger, director of the Congress Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In addition, “a motion or resolution of impeachment is a matter of high constitutional privilege that presumably would not need a special rule other than to extend and allocate debate time beyond the hour rule.”
“The speaker has her majority in line, and that is what counts,” said Michael J. Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor. “She will call the shots.”
Frank O. Bowman III, law professor at the University of Missouri, said there’s even a precedent: The House impeached President Andrew Johnson after the Civil War three days after his firing of the Secretary of War, which spurred the impeachment.
“Everything could happen in hours and days,” said Stephen M. Griffin, a Tulane University law professor. “The House of Representatives is built to act quickly.”
