Meaning of high crime | Babel Free

Definitions

A major crime or wrongdoing, notably one subject to trial before the highest courts which may impose the gravest punishments.

Equivalents

Examples

“Lese majesty used to be a high crime, for which royal or imperial courts often put offenders to death.”

“Charles Stuart King of England. You have been accuſed on behalf of the People of England of high Treaſon and other high Crimes; the Court have determined that you ought to anſwer the ſame.”

“By way of Advice, I do acquaint you that there is no Judicature in England ſuperior to this, but the Parliament immediately. You are here impeached of a very high Crime, High Treaſon; it may be a Strain of Youth: the firſt Step to Mercy is Confeſſion.”

“For, my Lords, if I have committed any Faults or Errours in Expreſſion, yet as I inſiſt upon my Innocence with reſpect to all the High Crimes laid to my Charge, ſo I muſt ſtill inſiſt upon all the Doctrines which I have taught, as being agreeable to the Word of God, and to the Doctrine of our excellent and Apoſtolical Church, and which we of the Clergy are oblig'd both by Subſcription, and Oath to acknowledge, and defend.”

“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

“Treason and bribery [in the United States Constitution, Article II, section 4] have their precise definitions; other high crimes and misdemeanors have their import, but have not been legally defined, so as to include all cases which may fall under their heads. [...] A high crime is always understood to be some great offence against the State or the public; a misdemeanor is some petty offence in office, consisting of any kind of misbehaviour, or ill behaviour.”

“The South entered an equal Union, in which she was promised the control of one branch of Congress, for her safety, her freedom, and her protection therein; and it was her high crime, her unpardonable rebellion, that she refused to submit to an overwhelming majority in both branches thereof. [...] This, in the estimation of the North, was her high crime and misdemeanor. In the estimation of history, it will be her noble-doing and heroic virtue.”

“Congress has repeatedly defined "other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" to be serious violations of the public trust, not necessarily indictable offenses under criminal law [...]”

H. Rep. 101-36

“I am not dwelling today on high crimes. High crimes are so mind-boggling that the ordinary citizen cannot deal with them. [...] On the other hand, the practice of cheap chicanery, of dirty little cons, swindles and petty thievery, is something that at one time or another touches every one of us and is well understood.”

CEFR level