In a rare rebuke, Texas Rep. Al Green was formally censured in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday.
Green was censured for his actions during President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday, During the address, Green repeatedly yelled that Trump did not have a “mandate” to back his actions since taking office, and he did not stop interrupting the proceedings after being warned by House Speaker Mike Johnson that he would be removed from the chamber.
Ultimately Johnson ordered the sergeant-at-arms to remove Green from the House, and the speech continued.
Green was formally censured on Thursday, and had to stand in the well of the House as the censure resolution was read against him, as is custom during such hearings.
Green is now one of 28 members of the House that have been censured according to the National Archives. Nine Senators have also faced censure in that body’s history.
Here is a rundown of some of the more famous cases, while more information about what happens during a censure can be found here.
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, shares what he was saying to President Donald Trump during his address to a joint session of Congress that led to being removed from the chamber.
In the last 40 years, only six members of the House have been censured, including Green after Thursday’s vote.
In 2010, New York Rep. Charles Rangel was convicted of a variety of crimes, including misusing congressional letterhead for fundraising. He was also charged with soliciting millions of dollars from corporate officials and lobbyists, and failed to disclose thousands of dollars in income and assets on federally required forms, according to Politico.
Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Rashida Tlaib and Jamaal Bowman were all censured in 2023 after Republicans took control of the House. Schiff was censured for making allegations that Trump had benefitted from Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election. Tlaib was censured for her comments on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, specifically over her repeated use of the phrase “from the river to the sea,” which Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider called “a call for the destruction of Israel and murder of Jews” as he cast the party’s only vote against her.
Bowman was censured for setting off a fire alarm in the Capitol, an offense for which he pleaded guilty in a Washington, D.C. court and paid a $1,000 fine under an agreement with prosecutors.
Republican Rep. Paul Gosar was censured in 2021 for posting a video in which an animated version of the Arizona representative committed acts of violence against President Joe Biden and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Gosar was also removed from committees after the censure vote, according to U.S. News and World Report.
Previous cases included Rep. Laurence Keitt, who was censured for assisting in the infamous caning of Sen. Charles Sumner. Keitt stood guard at a door in the Capitol while Sumner was beaten with a cane, and prevented anyone from assisting him, according to the Latin Library.
Rep. Al Green, a Texas Democrat, was ejected from the House of Representatives chamber Tuesday night after repeatedly heckling President Donald Trump as he gave a speech to a joint session of Congress.
Keitt later resigned from the House after his censure.
In 1870, three different members of the House were censured for selling military academy appointments, including Reps. Benjamin Whittemore, John DeWeese and Roderick Butler, according to the National Archives.
Only nine senators have been censured, and none have been disciplined since 1990. Under Senate rules, senators can be censured for “conduct senators determined to be inappropriate or detrimental to the Senate.”
Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin was censured in 1954. He was censured for failing to cooperate with a Senate subcommittee looking into his conduct while working to root out suspected Communists from the federal government, according to the National Archives. He died in May 1957.
Sens. Benjamin Tillman and John McLaurin, both representing South Carolina, were censured and suspended for fighting in the Senate chamber in 1902. Tillman accused McLaurin of corruption, and the two men exchanged blows on the floor of the Senate.
A step above censure is expulsion from the chamber, and just three representatives have been kicked out of the House of Representatives since the Civil War.
Michael Myers was convicted of bribery in the 1980s. He was convicted of taking a $50,000 bribe from an FBI agent and was also convicted on conspiracy charges. He had promised undercover agents he would introduce an immigration bill for an “Arab Shiek,” according to the Washington Post.
Ohio Rep. James Traficant was expelled from the House in 2002 after he was convicted on bribery and racketeering charges, and New York Rep. George Santos was expelled in 2023 after being indicted on 23 counts including money laundering, wire fraud and a host of other charges.
