Rule IX: The Constitutional Tool That Could Change Everything
- Kal Inois
- 5 hours ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 3 hours ago
House Rule IX gives any single member of Congress the power to force an impeachment vote — no committee, no leadership approval, no permission required. The articles are already written. The rule is already there. So why isn't it being used?
There is a rule buried in the standing procedures of the United States House of Representatives that most members of Congress would rather you didn't look up. It is called House Rule IX, and it is one of the most powerful tools for constitutional accountability that exists in American law. It requires no committee vote. It requires no permission from the Speaker. It requires no blessing from party leadership. Under Rule IX, any single member of the House can force a floor vote on articles of impeachment, and the House must act within two legislative days.
The articles of impeachment already exist. On April 6, 2026, Representative John Larson of Connecticut introduced H.Res.1155: thirteen articles drafted by constitutional scholar Bruce Fein and consumer advocate Ralph Nader, charging †rump with high crimes and misdemeanors including the unconstitutional wars in Iran and Venezuela, violations of the Emoluments Clauses, persecution of political opponents through law enforcement, the destruction of election infrastructure, and the abuse of the pardon power to shield insurrectionists. The case is documented. The resolution is filed. Free Speech for People and Bruce Fein have demanded that Rep. Larson invoke Rule IX the moment Congress returns to session. So has the coalition of over one million petition signers at ImpeachTrumpAgain.org. And so has Jessica Denson.
Who is Jessica Denson?
Jessica Denson is the founder of the Removal Coalition and the organizer behind the Remove the Regime movement, but her credentials go deeper than activism. She is a former †rump campaign staffer who experienced sexual harassment on the 2016 campaign and then spent years fighting the illegal NDA that the campaign used to silence her. In 2021, a federal court ruled that NDA invalid. By 2023, she had expanded that victory into a class action, permanently freeing all 422 former 2016 Trump campaign workers from the illegal gag agreement. She started as a pro se litigant — no law firm, no resources — and beat one of the most litigious figures in American history in federal court. Rep. Al Green named her specifically on the floor of Congress in December 2025: "I want people to know who Jessica Denson is, who is the mother and founder of the Removal Coalition; who believes that impeachment, conviction, and removal is part of the process, but it is also the solution."
She is now demanding that Rep. Larson invoke Rule IX immediately: "Join us in urging Rep. Larson to invoke Rule IX, and urge every member of Congress to get the blood off their hands by supporting H.R. 1155 and Rep. Larson in forcing an immediate floor vote."
Understanding Rule IX is understanding why the movement has a path forward that doesn't depend on the cooperation of Democratic party leadership, which has, so far, chosen delay over action.
HOW RULE IX WORKS
The constitutional mechanism, explained
Under clause 2(a)(1) of House Rule IX, articles of impeachment are classified as a "Question of the Privileges of the House," meaning they concern the fundamental constitutional rights and duties of Congress itself. This status makes them privileged, which is a technical term with a powerful practical meaning: they cannot be buried in committee, ignored by the Judiciary Committee chair, or quietly shelved by the Speaker.
When a member invokes Rule IX and offers an impeachment resolution, they must give the House one legislative day's notice of their intent. After that notice period, the House has two legislative days to act. It cannot simply ignore the resolution. One of two things must happen: either the full House votes directly on the articles of impeachment, or the full House votes on a separate motion to dispose of the resolution, typically a motion to table it. As Citizens' Impeachment's Rule IX guide explains, that tabling vote is itself a vote on impeachment in all but name: every member who votes to table is casting a vote to protect †rump from accountability, and that vote is on the record.
This is exactly how Rep. Al Green forced floor votes in June 2025 and December 2025. In June, the tabling motion passed 344–79. By December, that number had shifted dramatically: 140 members voted against tabling, a 77 percent surge in support for impeachment, documented by the Removal Coalition as a direct result of its organizing pressure. Forty-seven members voted "present," including House Democratic leadership.
The rule does not require a majority. It does not require the Speaker's permission. It requires one member with the courage to give notice and take the floor.
Which brings us to the problem. Democratic leadership has watched two Rule IX votes come and go and each time chosen to vote "present" rather than yes. In December 2025, The Hill reported that Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark, and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, along with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, all voted "present" rather than support Al Green's articles. Their joint statement described impeachment as "a sacred constitutional vehicle" and then declined to use it. Axios reported that several members "directly confronted Jeffries and his team on the floor" in the moments before the vote.
The leadership's argument, as Time reported in April 2026, is strategic: wait for the 2026 midterms, win the majority, and then launch a proper impeachment investigation. A source familiar with Jeffries' thinking told Time the party needs to "do the work" to build broad support and get some Republicans on board before proceeding. Rep. Madeleine Dean put it plainly: "Let us get into the majority, let us get a Senate majority and then hold this president to account."
It is a position that has a certain logic — and a fatal flaw.
"Democracy dies in fear and silence, but only if we let it. We refused, and we won." — Jessica Denson, on her legal victory voiding †rump's campaign NDAs, Protect Democracy, October 2023
The flaw is this: the 2026 midterms are not guaranteed. †rump's regime is actively working to make sure they aren't. The Brennan Center for Justice has documented a systematic campaign to rewrite election rules, intimidate election workers, and weaponize the DOJ against states that resist. In January 2026, the FBI seized actual ballots from Fulton County, Georgia. In March 2026, the regime issued an executive order attempting to give the U.S. Postal Service control over who may vote by mail, an order challenged in court as unconstitutional. Democracy Docket has written that the 2026 midterms will be "easier for †rump to steal than the 2020 election" precisely because the government has been so thoroughly compromised. And †rump himself told Reuters that he didn't think the country should have an election at all this year.
The strategy of waiting for a majority to hold †rump accountable depends on having the kind of election that †rump is trying to prevent. This is not a theoretical tension. It is the central contradiction of the Democratic leadership's position, and it is why the Removal Coalition, Free Speech for People, and over a million Americans are not willing to wait.
As Free Speech for People and Bruce Fein wrote in their April 10, 2026 open letter, the time for careful deliberation was before the regime seized election infrastructure, launched unauthorized wars, and began criminalizing the people who try to stop it. "House Democrats," they wrote, should "stop stalling and act." Rep. Larson filed his thirteen articles on April 6. The Rule IX mechanism is sitting there, ready to be invoked. Every day that passes without a vote is a day the regime uses to make the next vote harder to hold.
What Rule IX does, and why it matters even when the vote is lost, is create a record. Every member of Congress who votes to table these articles is on the record, in writing, in a public roll call vote, as having chosen not to hold †rump accountable for unconstitutional wars, billion-dollar corruption, and the sabotage of American elections. That vote will follow them into November 2026. It will follow them into history. And as the December 2025 vote showed, when the tabling margin narrowed from 344–79 to 237–140 in just six months, the record is moving in one direction.
Jessica Denson knows something about what it costs to take on †rump alone and refuse to be silenced. She did it as a single litigant with no money and no law firm, armed with nothing but the conviction that the law meant what it said. She won. The lesson she took from that fight, which she writes about and broadcasts on her Lights On show every Friday evening, is that accountability doesn't wait for perfect conditions. It is forced by people who decide to stop waiting.
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H.Res.1155 is seventeen pages long. It charges †rump with initiating unconstitutional wars, violating the Emoluments Clauses through billions in personal enrichment, persecuting political opponents through the DOJ, pardoning insurrectionists, deploying military and paramilitary forces against American civilians, and defying rulings of the Supreme Court. Every article is documented. Every charge is sourced. The Founders wrote the impeachment clause for exactly this moment, and they wrote Rule IX so that the full House — not the leadership, not a committee chair, not a single powerful gatekeeper — would decide whether to use it.
Any member of the House can make that decision. Any one of them can give notice tomorrow morning. The rule exists. The articles exist. The million signatures exist. The movement in the streets exists. What is needed now is a single member of Congress willing to do what the rule allows and what the moment demands.
Force the Vote — Here's How
Call Rep. Larson directly at (202) 225-2265 and urge him to invoke Rule IX and force an immediate floor vote on H.Res.1155. The Removal Coalition's page at removetheregime.com has the direct call script and everything you need.
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your own representative. Tell them: "I am calling to urge you to support H.Res.1155 and demand that Rep. Larson invoke Rule IX to force a floor vote on articles of impeachment. Your vote will be on the record." Find your representative by ZIP code at house.gov/representatives.
Sign the petition at ImpeachTrumpAgain.org. Over one million Americans have already added their names. Free Speech for People delivers these signatures directly to congressional offices — your name becomes constituent pressure in a specific district.
Follow and support Jessica Denson's work at removalcoalition.org, removetheregime.com, and her Lights On Substack. Her show airs every Friday at 7 p.m. ET. Her coalition is the organizing force that turned a 344–79 tabling vote into a 237–140 one in six months. That momentum doesn't stop unless we stop it.
Understand what a Rule IX vote means even when it loses. Every time a member votes to table, they are on the record. Citizens' Impeachment's Rule IX guide explains the mechanics in full — share it with everyone who thinks impeachment is impossible while Republicans control the House. It isn't. It's uncomfortable. There's a difference.
The rule exists. The articles are written. The only thing missing is the pressure to use them, and that is entirely up to us.