Posted on 12/20/2019 7:37:01 AM PST by NobleFree
The United States Supreme Court ruled in Nixon v. United States (1993):
"the three very specific requirements that the Constitution does impose on the Senate when trying impeachments [are]: The Members must be under oath, a two-thirds vote is required to convict, and the Chief Justice presides when the President is tried. These limitations are quite precise, and their nature suggests that the Framers did not intend to impose additional limitations on the form of the Senate proceedings" (emphasis added)
Ergo, if Mad Nan chooses not to 'formally deliver' the articles of impeachment and/or to not send 'managers' to present the House's case, the Senate is well within its Constitutional authority to proceed without them.
That’s what I said from the start. The knowledge of the vote itself - well-publicized and officially published on Congress’ website - is sufficient notice.
There’s no Constitutional description of an individual who can choose not to transmit articles of impeachment. The vote was taken, the deed is done. Let’s get on with this.
My guess would be that the articles have to be entered into the Congressional record, then the Senate can recognize them. IMO, this is a scam that the dimwits cooked up to trick their stupid supporters. Vote and pass them, but don’t enter them into the record so the Repubs can’t call any witnesses.
The two houses are separate. Consider that one was in MA and the other in South Texas. There is no automatic connection between the two. Therefore, if a bill is created in one house (witching the restrictions for taxes) the other house of Congress would never know about it without transmittal.
Since reading and hearing about the bill is not accurate (in terms of this argument) there is no way that one house could take up the action of the other.
And since impeachment cannot originate in the senate, without transmittal from the house, they cannot act on something that “doesn’t exist” so far as they know.
The Senate doesn’t have an obligation to act on it with any urgency. They could be “really busy” when it comes over.
The whole thing is a rock of crap—and if I were the Republican party I would be running ads all over the break addressing the “game playing.” I would also create a school house rock episode explaining how Nancy, Adam, and Jerry are not following the rules.
Vote and pass them, but don’t enter them into the record so the Repubs can’t call any witnesses. No Record, no witnesses, no impeachment, Null and Void per Mark Levin. Sounds about right to me.
There are also a few forms of messages from and to the president and other executive departments. All recorded in the Congressional Record.
(House Resolution 755, One Hundred Sixteenth Congress, First Session)
Resolved, That Donald John Trump, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate:
The house has resolved to exhibit to the senate. It has yet to carry that out. There was about a three week delay in the Clinton impeachment, so all the breathless news is just bait for your attention. It is not weird that the House has not sent to the senate. The senate isn't even in session.
Irrelevant - the meaning of the ruling is crystal clear, the claims of liberal "experts" notwithstanding.
That’s the problem. Until Nancy the Red Queen of the House allows that vote to be officially recorded, it doesn’t exist in the records of the House of Representatives and it hasn’t officially taken place until she signs it as an official act of the House of Representatives, according to the House Rules. So far, it hasn’t been officially published. She’s sitting on it like a throne, waiting to drop it on the Senate when it best suits her party’s needs.
Another thing no one is mentioning, if the Senate does dismiss these articles of impeachment (note I have deliberately lower cased the title), Queen Nonecy can easily schedule another vote and send them again, and again, and again. She can practice a legislative form of Barratry on the Senate, repeatedly sending articles of impeachment at her royal whim.
If the dems think that their crazy lefty base is going to be satisfied with Trump getting a bad headline then they are as crazy as them, in their own way. They want blood, they want Trump’s head on a plate and his children sent to concentration camps. They will not be happy seeing Christmas wishes from Trump, Trump still meeting with foreign leaders, Trump still ... being President. It’s only a matter of time before their initial euphoria turns into a rage directed at Nancy Pelosi and congressional Dems for playing around with their fantasy of Trump swinging from a lamp post.
Do you believe the Senate acts on judges because the president publishes their nomination on the White House website?
But entry in the Congressional Record is.
Senators must be under oath during an impeachment trial. The founders must have realized that their overall oath to uphold the constitution is not enough. In the House, Dem Congressmen lied again and again, relying on their Constitutional protection from prosecution for anything they say in the House.
Queen Nancy also closed off the House Well for member speeches to prohibit the minority from criticizing her choice of holding the articles of impeachment from the Senate. This is unprecedented in the 230 year history of Congress. She is depriving the members’ of their Free Speech rights that are guaranteed in the House Rules by a royal edict.
The Rules of the House have always allowed members five minutes in the morning and evenings to make speeches to the chair (regardless if any other members are present) for the record when Congress does not have any other business before it that takes precedence. House majority and minority leaders are allowed a half-hour during the same time. Evening hours end at 10PM. C-Span can cover the speeches. Nancy shut that all down on her royal whim.
She is doing what the Democrats claimed President Trump was wanting to do. . . acting like a royal despot.
I can see both sides of this debate.
Here’s my take.
I took the actions of Pelosi and the House RATs as nothing more or less than an outright declaration of War on the Constitution, our Bill of Rights and the sovereign American Citizens.
This is the way that we should approach this from this point on.
Nor you about yours.
I don’t see any requirement at all in the Constitution for any sort of bill or formal delivery of the articles. No requisite for delivery at all. The articles are well known and in the records.
The result of the vote has been entered in the Congressional Record: https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2019/12/18/house-section/article/h12130-1
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