Pelosi’s first move after the House voted to impeach your president was to un-impeach him. Until she sends the articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial, and there is a trial, there is no impeachment. So, sayeth lefty law professor, Noah Feldman.
Related: Irony Alert: Pelosi Won’t Send Articles to the Senate Without Assurances of a “Fair” Trial
The problem stems from Nancy Pelosi holding onto the Articles the House voted on in hopes of leveraging conditions out of the Republican majority Senate. I’m not sure why. The Senate has made it clear they can wait all year and have no interest in any terms. Keep ’em; we’ll be busy doing the people’s business.
And while Democrats, the left-wing activist (like CNN, MSNBC and the Alphabets) are crowing about impeaching the MF-er per Noah Feldman, that’s not how it works.
According to the Constitution, impeachment is a process, not a vote
If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, it hasn’t actually impeached the president. If the articles are not transmitted, Trump could legitimately say that he wasn’t truly impeached at all.”
You’d think Democrat Defenders of the Constitution™ (and our democracy, even though we live in a Republic) would know that even, to paraphrase Matt Vespa at Townhall, “the burn it to save it, crowd.”
The Constitution doesn’t say how fast the articles must go to the Senate. Some modest delay is not inconsistent with the Constitution, or how both chambers usually work.
But an indefinite delay would pose a serious problem. Impeachment as contemplated by the Constitution does not consist merely of the vote by the House, but of the process of sending the articles to the Senate for trial. Both parts are necessary to make an impeachment under the Constitution: The House must actually send the articles and send managers to the Senate to prosecute the impeachment. And the Senate must actually hold a trial.
Not so much.
In fact, there are actual Democrats who are mad The Donald is still the President after the House vote. Not exactly a rousing endorsement for Public education or the left-wing learning curve. But I bet they know how to throw bottles of urine at police officers, or why they need to silence conservative speakers on Campus.
It seems the left is not so much a defender of the constitution as co-dependent on narratives they believe will convince voters they are not in fact socialist hellbent on its destruction.
That second article of impeachment charges President Trump with obstruction of Congress for refusing to comply with the congressional subpoenas in the absence of a final court order. In so charging him, the House Judiciary Committee has arrogated to itself the power to decide the validity of subpoenas, and the power to determine whether claims of executive privilege must be recognized, both authorities that properly belong with the judicial branch of our government, not the legislative branch.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the claim that lacking a compelling court order, the president is under no obligation to release privileged information to congress for any reason. Put another way, the second article of impeachment may not just be null and void; it might also be both illegal and unethical.
Alan Dershowitz, also not a Republican, adds that,
The first article goes too far in authorizing impeachment based on the vague criterion of abuse of power. But it is the second article that truly endangers our system of checks and balances and the important role of the courts as the umpires between the legislative and executive branches under the Constitution.
/Popcorn!
