Dictionary:
cen·sure (sĕn'shər) 
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[Middle English, from Latin cēnsūra, censorship, from cēnsor, Roman censor. See censor.]
censurer cen'sur·er n.| Word Overheard: censure |
When the Senate decides to censure you, it may have no teeth but it hurts politically nonetheless:
"Saying that President Bush misled Americans about the legality of his domestic-eavesdropping program, Sen.Russ Feingold said Sunday he would introduce a resolution to censure him."
Link: Senator proposing censure of president
Posted March 13, 2006.
See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words. 
| Business Dictionary: Censure |
Act by a governmental agency or professional organization, indicating condemnation or significant disapproval of an action by an individual or firm. Censure results from a material wrongdoing of an individual or company in the performance of professional duties. An example is when a CPA violates Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
| Thesaurus: censure |
noun
verb
| Antonyms: censure |
Definition: severe criticism
Antonyms: approval, compliment, encouragement, endorsement, praise, ratification, recommendation, sanction
v
Definition: condemn; criticize severely
Antonyms: allow, approve, compliment, endorse, laud, permit, sanction
| US Government Guide: censure |
By censuring one of its members, Congress formally rebukes that person for wrong doing. However, members who are censured do not lose their seat, their committee assignments, or their seniority. A simple majority vote can censure, but it requires a two-thirds vote to expel a member of Congress.
In 1842, the House nearly censured Representative John Quincy Adams (Whig-Massachusetts) for presenting an antislavery petition in violation of House rules. But Adams successfully fought back and the House took no vote. Other representatives suffered censure for insulting the Speaker, making treasonable utterances, assaulting fellow members of Congress, and corruption.
In 1811, the Senate censured Timothy Pickering (Federalist-Massachusetts) for reading a still-secret document in a public session. In 1902 two senators from South Carolina were censured for having a fist-fight in the Senate chamber. Senators have also been censured for the misuse of campaign funds and other financial irregularities.
The most infamous censure case involved Joseph R. McCarthy (Republican Wisconsin). McCarthy's reckless charges and bullying tactics had long troubled senators, but they hesitated to act because of the popularity of his anticommunist crusade. When McCarthy launched an irresponsible attack on the U.S. Army in 1954, public opinion turned against him. Following the Army-McCarthy hearings, the Senate by a vote of 67 to 22 found McCarthy guilty of conduct unbecoming a senator and of bringing the Senate into disrepute.
Since the resolution used the word condemn, McCarthy's supporters argued that he had not been censured. Other senators pointed out that the two words had identical meanings. In later cases involving financial misconduct, the Senate “denounced” offenders. Both the Senate and House have also “reprimanded” members for lesser offenses.
Congress may also pass resolutions of censure to condemn the President for improper, illegal, or unconstitutional conduct. Although the Constitution makes no mention of censure, three Presidents have been involved in incidents involving the censure power of Congress.
The Senate censured Andrew Jackson for failing to turn over executive branch records relating to the removal of government deposits from the Bank of the United States. Jackson had declined to comply because he believed the executive branch was independent from the legislature and that Congress had no right to demand any of his communications with cabinet officers.
In 1843 President John Tyler was censured by the House of Representatives after it failed to impeach him for vetoing bills passed by the Whig congressional majority. Former President John Quincy Adams chaired a select committee that reported that Tyler had misused his veto power. Tyler, like Jackson, responded with a letter to the House defending his conduct. The House refused to enter it into its journal and the matter was dropped.
President James Buchanan was investigated in 1860 by a congressional committee chaired by Representative John Covode for alleged improprieties involving appointments and contracts for government printing. The Covode committee's work might have led to censure, but President Buchanan sent a message of protest to the House. No resolution of censure was voted.
In 1998, after President Bill Clinton admitted that he lied about his affair with a White House intern, House Democrats drafted a resolution of censure. By a nearly party-line vote, the Republican majority defeated the censure resolution and instead impeached the President, who was later acquitted by the Senate.
See also Buchanan, James; Discipline, congressional; Expulsion from Congress; Impeachment; Jackson, Andrew; McCarthy, Joseph R.; Tyler, John
Sources
| Law Dictionary: Censure |
The official reprimand by a legislative or other formal body of one of its own members. Synonymous with obloquy. 11 P. 713, 716. A censure is more severe than a simple reprimand. Being under censure makes one the object of disgrace.
In ecclesiastical law, a spiritual punishment consisting in withdrawing from a baptized person, whether belonging to the clergy or the laity, a privilege which the church gives him, or in wholly expelling him from the christian community. 14 C.J.S. 100.
| Word Tutor: censure |
Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832).
Tutor's tip: A "censer" is an incense burner, a "censor" is a person who suppresses ideas or materials, to "censure" is to blame or disapprove, while a "sensor" is a device that detects automatically.
| Quotes About: Censure |
Quotes:
"It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of ;antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution."
- Joseph Addison
"A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart, and his next to escape the censures of the world."
- Joseph Addison
"The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves."
- Demosthenes
"I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise."
- Thomas Jefferson
"Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure, which is useful, to praise which deceives them."
- Francois De La Rochefoucauld
"The censure of those who are opposed to us, is the highest commendation that can be given us."
- Seigneur De Saint-Evremond
See more famous quotes about Censure
| Wikipedia: Censure |
Censure (pronounced /ˈsɛnʃər/) is a process by which a formal reprimand is issued to an individual by an authoritative body. In a deliberative assembly, a motion to censure is used.
Contents |
In politics, censure is an alternative to more serious measures against misconduct or dereliction of duty.[1][2]
| Second | Yes |
|---|---|
| Debatable | Yes |
| Amendable | Yes |
| Vote Required | Majority |
Censure is a procedure for publicly reprimanding a public official for inappropriate behavior. When the president is censured, it serves merely as a condemnation and has no direct effect on the validity of presidency, nor are there any other particular legal consequences. Unlike impeachment, censure has no basis in the Constitution or in the rules of the Senate and House of Representatives. It derives from the formal condemnation of either congressional body of their own members.
The motion to censure is an exception to the general rule that "a motion must not use language that reflects on a member's conduct or character, or is discourteous, unnecessarily harsh, or not allowed in debate."[3] Demeter's Manual notes, "It is a reprimand, aimed at reformation of the person and prevention of further offending acts."[2] While there are many possible grounds for censuring members of an organization, such as embezzlement, divulging the secret password, absenteeism, drunkenness, and so on, DEM notes that the grounds for censuring a presiding officer are more limited:[4]
| “ | Serious grounds for censure against presiding officers (presidents, chairmen, etc.) are, in general: arrogation or assumption by the presiding officer of dictatorial powers – powers not conferred upon him by law – by which he harasses, embarrasses and humiliates members; or, specifically: (1) he refuses to recognize members entitled to the floor; (2) he refuses to accept and to put canonical motions to vote; (3) he refuses to entertain appropriate appeals from his decision; (4) he ignores proper points of order; (5) he disobeys the bylaws and the rules of order; (6) he disobeys the assembly's will and substitutes his own; (7) he denies to members the proper exercise of their constitutional or parliamentary rights. | ” |
More serious disciplinary procedures may involve fine, suspension, or expulsion. In some cases, the assembly may declare the chair vacant and elect a new chair; or a motion can be made to rescind the election of an officer.[5]
For examples specific to the United States, see Censure in the United States.
If the motion is made to censure the presiding officer, then he must relinquish the chair to the vice-president until the motion is disposed of;[6] but during this time, the vice-president is still referred to as "Mr. Vice President" in debate, since a censure is merely a warning and not a proceeding that removes the president from the chair.[7] An officer being censured is not referred to by name in the motion, but simply as "the president," "the treasurer," etc.
After a motion to censure is passed, the chair (or the vice-president, if the presiding officer is being censured) addresses the censured member by name. He may say something to the effect of, "Brother F, you have been censured by vote of the assembly. A censure indicates the assembly's resentment of your conduct at meetings. A censure is a warning. It is the warning voice of suspension or expulsion. Please take due notice thereof and govern yourself accordingly." Or, if the chair is being censured, the vice-president may say, "Mr. Mean, you have been censured by the assembly for the reasons contained in the resolution. I now return to you the presidingship."[8]
To date, Andrew Jackson is the only sitting President to be successfully censured, and his censure was subsequently expunged from the record.[9]
On December 2, 1954, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin was censured by the United States Senate for failing to cooperate with the subcommittee that was investigating him, and for insults to the committee that was trying to censure him.
On June 10, 1980, Democratic Representative Charles H. Wilson from California was censured by the House of Representatives for "financial misconduct," as a result of the "Koreagate" scandal of 1976. "Koreagate" was an American political scandal involving South Koreans seeking influence with members of Congress. An immediate goal seems to have been reversing President Richard Nixon's decision to withdraw troops from South Korea. It involved the KCIA (now the National Intelligence Service) funneling bribes and favors through Korean businessman Tongsun Park in an attempt to gain favor and influence. Some 115 members of Congress were implicated.
On July 20, 1983, Representatives Dan Crane, a Republican from Illinois, and Gerry Studds, a Democrat from Massachusetts, were censured by the House of Representatives for their involvement in the 1983 Congressional page sex scandal.[10]
On July 12, 1999, the U.S. House of Representatives censured (in a 355-to-0 vote) a scientific publication titled "A Meta-analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples," by Bruce Rind, Philip Tromovich, and Robert Bauserman; (see Rind et al. controversy) which was published in the American Psychological Association's "Psychological Bulletin (July 1998).[11]
On July 31, 2007, retired Army General Philip Kensinger was censured by The United States Army. The censure came after misleading investigators of the Pat Tillman death in 2004.[12][13]
On January 24, 2008, Republican Douglas Bruce from Colorado Springs, Colorado was censured by the Colorado House of Representatives for kicking a newspaper photographer during a morning prayer session, and refusing to apologize.[14]
On July 6, 2009, Republican South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was censured by the state GOP executive committee for traveling overseas on tax payer funds to visit his mistress.[15]
On October 13, 2009, Mayor of Sheboygan, WI Bob Ryan was censured due to a YouTube video that showed him making sexually vulgar comments about his sister-in-law taken at a bar on a cell phone.[16] The censure was voted 15-0 by the Sheboygan Common Council.
On November 11, 2009, US Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was censured by the Republicans of Charleston County for working with Democrats on climate change legislation.[17]
Censure is a procedure by which the House of Commons or the Senate can rebuke the actions or conduct of an individual. The power to censure is not directly mentioned in the constitutional texts of Canada but is derived from the powers bestowed upon both Chambers through section 17 of the Constitution Act, 1867. A motion of censure can be introduced by any Member of Parliament or Senator and passed by a simple majority for censure to be deemed to have been delivered. In addition, if the censure is related to the privileges of the Chamber, the individual in question could be summoned to the bar of the House or Senate (or, in the case of a sitting member, to that member's place in the chamber) to be censured, and could also face other sanctions from the house, including imprisonment. Normally, censure is exclusively an on-the-record rebuke — it is not equivalent to a motion of no confidence, and a prime minister can continue in office even if censured.
An ecclesiastical censure is a canonical punishment against a cleric which generally involves a prohibition from teaching or publishing.
Theological censure is, in Catholic teaching, a doctrinal judgment by which the Church stigmatizes certain teachings detrimental to faith or morals.
That they are directed at teachings distinguishes them from canonical censures, such as excommunication, suspension, and interdict, which are spiritual punishments inflicted on people.
They are divided into three groups according as they bear principally upon (1) the import, or (2) the expression, or (3) the consequences, of condemned propositions.
The Wiktionary definition of censure
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| Misspellings: censure |
Common misspelling(s) of censure
| Translations: Censure |
Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - kritisere
n. - kritik
Nederlands (Dutch)
terechtwijzen, afkeuren, afkeuring
Français (French)
v. tr. - critiquer
n. - critique, réprimande
Deutsch (German)
v. - zurechtweisen, mißbilligen, tadeln
n. - Mißbilligung, Kritik, Tadel
Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - αποδοκιμάζω, επικρίνω, μέμφομαι, επιπλήττω
n. - μομφή, επίκριση, αποδοκιμασία, στηλίτευση
Italiano (Italian)
rimproverare, censurare, censura
Português (Portuguese)
v. - censurar
n. - censura (f)
Русский (Russian)
осуждать, порицать
Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - reprender, amonestar, desaprobar, censurar
n. - censura
Svenska (Swedish)
v. - kritisera
n. - omild kritik, censur
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
责备, 谴责, 责难
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 責備, 譴責
n. - 責難
한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 비난하다
n. - 비난
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 非難
v. - 非難する, 酷評する
العربيه (Arabic)
(فعل) لام, ذم, وبخ, زجر, آخذ (الاسم) لوم, ذم, توبيخ
עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - נזף, ביקר, גינה
n. - ביקורת קשה, גינוי
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 | James Buchanan |
| congressional discipline |
| expulsion From Congress |
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