Here is another story I'm republishing on Medium. This is a current events article I wrote during the first impeachment trial of President Trump. I'm republishing it now for two reasons: (1) I want to archive my old work on Medium, and (2) the second impeachment trail just concluded with the same result as this one - an acquittal.
As I said in my previous post covering Impeachment: The Battle Of 2020, I will be giving you my opinion on whether or not this impeachment attempt was constitutional in the first place. My opinion is, there are valid arguments on both sides. Yes, this is the squishy conservative position where the self-proclaimed conservative doesn't take a side. Well, sometimes you have to listen to both sides to find the truth, and the truth is not as straightforward on this one.
President Trump was impeached by the House on January 13th, 7 days before he left office. So, the impeachment process was underway while he was president which makes the constitutional argument much stronger, and this is the best argument they have. Also, if this were not an option under these circumstances, any and every president would be able to abuse their power if they lose an election in November but aren't out of office until January. He/she would have a 2 month window to do whatever he/she wanted with no real threat of impeachment due to the length of the process. I'm not sure the founders would want it this way.
But, on the other side, the language in the constitution is very clear. Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution reads: "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." A former president can't be removed for an office position he/she no longer holds. The main motivation for conviction here isn't to remove former President Trump but to bar him from running again per another Article in the U.S. Constitution.
Article I, Section 2 (Clause 7) of the U.S. Constitution reads: "Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law." If you look at the language in that section, it uses and and not or. The founders were known to be very precise in their language, so them using and is a way to make all these conditions, listed in the clause, to apply together and not separately. If the Democrats want to bar President Trump from running again, they will have to go through the 14th Amendment (Section 3) and claim insurrection. I imagine this is their plan now.
The people arguing against impeachment on a constitutional bases have another argument: The Chief Justice isn't presiding over the trial. Chief Justice Roberts is not presiding over this impeachment trial even though he did preside in the first impeachment trail. According the Article I, Section 3 (Clause 6) of the U.S. Constitution, "[w]hen the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside." The reason why Justice Roberts isn't presiding is unclear (most reports say he was never asked), but the Democrats give a very ironic case for moving forward with impeachment without him. They say since former President Trump is no longer the sitting president, Article 1, Section 3 (Clause 6) does not need to be fulfilled with the Chief Justice presiding. Now, I don't know about you, but it seems like the Democrats are just picking and choosing when the "not the current president" statement applies. Not only is the Chief Justice not presiding, but instead, Senator Leahy (D-VT) will be presiding in his place. So, you have a part of the effective prosecution presiding over the entire trial. I don't see anything wrong with this...
Thanks for reading! Let me know how I did. Make sure to give the story an "applause" or a comment after you finish reading.
https://engpolitics.medium.com/impeachment-no-more-witnesses-2020-a54c3a2c706a
I was listening to some news updates when I heard this CNN clip about the potentially hazardous water in East Palestine, and as soon as I heard her ask the question about whether or not her guest would drink the water, I IMMEDIATELY thought of this clip from South Park. Enjoy.
In this special episode of The Engineering Politics Podcast, Truman from Return To Reason is back for a new video and podcast series titled ‘Revisiting The Road To Serfdom’ where we review F.A. Hayek’s classic work, The Road To Serfdom. This episode covers ‘Chapter 15: The Prospects of International Order’.
This will be an ongoing series that covers the entire book. We put a ton of work into making this insightful and relevant, so we hope you enjoy watching/listening as much as we enjoyed reading and recording.
Become a subscriber of the Engineering Politics Locals Community to support this content. Also, consider joining the @ReturnToReason Locals Community to show Truman some support.
In this episode of The Engineering Politics Podcast, I team up with Truman from @ReturnToReason to interview one of the most intelligent and influential creators in the space of philosophy today. Stephen R.C. Hicks is a Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, Executive Director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship, and Senior Scholar at The Atlas Society. He has written many books including Explaining Postmodernism and Nietzsche and the Nazis. We bring him on to talk about the social and political issues we are currently facing in America, and the West more broadly, and what the collectivist ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau might have to do with it.
Become a subscriber of the Engineering Politics Locals Community to support this content. Also, consider joining the @ReturnToReason Locals Community to show Truman some support.
In this special episode of The Engineering Politics Podcast, Truman from Return To Reason is back for a new video and podcast series titled ‘Revisiting The Road To Serfdom’ where we review F.A. Hayek’s classic work, The Road To Serfdom. This episode covers ‘Chapter 15: The Prospects of International Order’.
This will be an ongoing series that covers the entire book. We put a ton of work into making this insightful and relevant, so we hope you enjoy watching/listening as much as we enjoyed reading and recording.
Become a subscriber of the Engineering Politics Locals Community to support this content. Also, consider joining the @ReturnToReason Locals Community to show Truman some support.
In this episode of The Engineering Politics Podcast, I team up with Truman from @ReturnToReason to interview one of the most intelligent and influential creators in the space of philosophy today. Stephen R.C. Hicks is a Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, Executive Director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship, and Senior Scholar at The Atlas Society. He has written many books including Explaining Postmodernism and Nietzsche and the Nazis. We bring him on to talk about the social and political issues we are currently facing in America, and the West more broadly, and what the collectivist ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau might have to do with it.
Become a subscriber of the Engineering Politics Locals Community to support this content. Also, consider joining the @ReturnToReason Locals Community to show Truman some support.
In this special episode of The Engineering Politics Podcast, Truman from @ReturnToReason is back for a new video and podcast series titled ‘Revisiting The Road To Serfdom’ where we review F.A. Hayek’s classic work, The Road To Serfdom. This episode covers ‘Chapter 14: Material Conditions and Ideal Ends’.
This will be an ongoing series that covers the entire book. We put a ton of work into making this insightful and relevant, so we hope you enjoy watching/listening as much as we enjoyed reading and recording.
Become a subscriber of the Engineering Politics Locals Community to support this content. Also, consider joining the @ReturnToReason Locals Community to show Truman some support.
