Tenure of Office Act (1867)

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Tenure of Office Act (1867)

Long title	An act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices
Enacted by	the 39th United States Congress
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate by George Henry Williams (R-OR) on December 3, 1866 Committee consideration by Committee on Retrenchment Passed the Senate on January 10, 1867 (22–11) Passed the House on February 18, 1867 (112–41) Vetoed by President Andrew Johnson on March 2, 1867 Overridden by the House of Representatives on March 2, 1867 (138–40) Overridden by the Senate and became law on March 2, 1867 (35–11)
Major amendments
Repealed on March 3, 1887[1]

This article is part of a series about Grover Cleveland
Personal Early life Birthplace Legacy SS Cleveland 1920 SS Cleveland 1947 28th Governor of New York Election Governorship 22nd & 24th President of the United States Presidencies Executive actions Foreign policy First term First inauguration Tenure of Office Act Wedding Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 Interstate Commerce Commission Dawes Act Enabling Act of 1889 Judicial appointments Cabinet Second term Second inauguration Panic of 1893 Blount Report Morgan Report Coxey's Army Pullman Strike Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act Venezuelan crisis Judicial appointments Cabinet Presidential campaigns 1884 convention election 1888 convention election 1892 convention election Post-presidency Retirement Death
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The Tenure of Office Act was a United States federal law, in force from 1867 to 1887, that was intended to restrict the power of the president to remove certain office-holders without the approval of the U.S. Senate. The law was enacted March 2, 1867, over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. It purported to deny the president the power to remove any executive officer who had been appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, unless the Senate approved the removal during the next full session of Congress.^[2]

Johnson's attempt to remove Secretary of War Edwin Stanton from office without the Senate's approval led to the impeachment of Johnson in early 1868 for violating the act.

The act was significantly amended by Congress on April 5, 1869, under President Ulysses S. Grant. Congress repealed the act in its entirety in 1887, 20 years after the law was enacted. While evaluating the constitutionality of a similar law in Myers v. United States (1926), the Supreme Court stated that the Tenure of Office Act was likely invalid.^[3]