The December 18 House votes to impeach President Trump, one day shy of 21 years since Bill Clinton was impeached, followed one of American history's most delicious ironies: the very date, December 10, that the House Judiciary Committee began formal debate, there was a reminder of the Ghost of Impeachments Past, none other than one Jerrold Nadler, who exactly 21 years earlier, in his opening statement in the Clinton vote, said,.
The December 13 via twin 23-17 party-line votes by the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by the selfsame Jerrold Nadler, that sent to the House floor articles of impeachment were voted in flagrant contradiction of Rep. Nadler's strong 1998 stance.
"Obstructing Congress" runs counter to what impeachment historian Raoul Berger noted is the obligation of presidents to defend the office's constitutional prerogatives under Article II. If promiscuously used, aimed at policies or personalities the majority dislikes, House impeachment and Senate conviction can become in practice much like the "No-confidence" vote in parliamentary systems, as nonviolent forms of executive removal by legislative bodies.
The White House weighed in with a December 17 letter from President Trump to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, stating that more due process was afforded defendants in the Salem Witch trials and that the Democrats are mounting an illegal attempted coup, with the House serving as a Star Chamber of partisan persecution.
Harvard law professor Noah Feldman, one of the three legal panel witness who testified before the HJC, points out that impeachment is a process, not a vote; until charges are formally filed by duly designated House managers with the Senate, impeachment is not legally complete.
If the House votes to "Impeach" but doesn't send the articles to the Senate or send impeachment managers there to carry its message, it hasn't directly violated the text of the Constitution.
One unilateral option for Senate Republicans is to pass a simple Senate Resolution, condemning House Democrats for rank opportunism in rushing to pass articles of impeachment but then refusing to send them to the Senate, so as to avoid a likely acquittal of the president.
https://spectator.org/21st-century-regicide-the-house-votes/
The December 13 via twin 23-17 party-line votes by the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by the selfsame Jerrold Nadler, that sent to the House floor articles of impeachment were voted in flagrant contradiction of Rep. Nadler's strong 1998 stance.
"Obstructing Congress" runs counter to what impeachment historian Raoul Berger noted is the obligation of presidents to defend the office's constitutional prerogatives under Article II. If promiscuously used, aimed at policies or personalities the majority dislikes, House impeachment and Senate conviction can become in practice much like the "No-confidence" vote in parliamentary systems, as nonviolent forms of executive removal by legislative bodies.
The White House weighed in with a December 17 letter from President Trump to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, stating that more due process was afforded defendants in the Salem Witch trials and that the Democrats are mounting an illegal attempted coup, with the House serving as a Star Chamber of partisan persecution.
Harvard law professor Noah Feldman, one of the three legal panel witness who testified before the HJC, points out that impeachment is a process, not a vote; until charges are formally filed by duly designated House managers with the Senate, impeachment is not legally complete.
If the House votes to "Impeach" but doesn't send the articles to the Senate or send impeachment managers there to carry its message, it hasn't directly violated the text of the Constitution.
One unilateral option for Senate Republicans is to pass a simple Senate Resolution, condemning House Democrats for rank opportunism in rushing to pass articles of impeachment but then refusing to send them to the Senate, so as to avoid a likely acquittal of the president.
https://spectator.org/21st-century-regicide-the-house-votes/
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