Posted on 12/19/2019 9:15:42 PM PST by SeekAndFind
What’s true as a matter of Constitutional Law and what’s true as a matter of House Or Senate rules may be different.
It’s undeniable that the Senate rules require the Senate to conduct a trial, and to do so using using members of the House as the prosecutors. And that they also require the impeachment be transmitted to them by the Senate.
But it’s also undeniable that the Constitution itself imposes no such requirements. And that it makes no reference to any required “ministerial actions.”
If the matter ever comes before SCOTUS, that entity is duty bound to hold the Constitution’s mandates and constraints above the rules of either chamber of Congress.
LOL
If Democrats had any brains at all...they would get rid of Nancy Pelosi...tomorrow morning!!! They are dying by their own hand...politically!!!
And there we go.
Just verifying olesigh - he's Class of 98.
That actually means something around here.
Bill of attainder.
Very interesting! Trump should sue Nancy, Adam and Jerry.
It's still the result of an indictment.
Some have confused passing legislation in one house of Congress with impeachment.
It is argued that there are steps to be taken after an impeachment vote that cause an impeachment to not take effect without those steps. I would argue otherwise.
The example I will use is the passing of legislation. When the House votes in favor of a bill, it is not effective. When the Senate votes in favor of that same bill, it is not effective. When the President signs that bill, it is immediately the law of the land. The President typically holds up the document for all to see and passes out the pens he used to sign the bill to others who attended.
If the President vetoes the bill, then it is not law. At such time as the two houses of Congress vote to override his veto, when the last one votes, the bill becomes law.
Now consider impeachment. It is a sole power of the House. It requires a simple majority. I would claim that it becomes an impeachment at the instant the Speaker announces the results of the vote and bangs the gavel down. It depends upon no other act.
The impeachement trial in the Senate, if there is one, is a totally different power that is exercised only by the Senate. There is no obligation to hold a trial; only the power to do so. I would claim that the Senate's power includes the power to recognize impeachment acts by the House and to act on them as they see fit.
McConnell (in my dearm): Rules? Ok, we’ll use Shitt’s rules. I get to say who speaks, who needs to shutup, and what witnesses y’all can call. It’s only fair.
my Question is if the impeachment is not delivered to the senate before the new congress starts does it die when the new congressional term starts if it does die in this way does that mean Trump was never impeached
Fabulous
Clements’ prophecies regarding Trump are eerily....prophetic
Love that Smudge!
Bookmark
If you don’t give effect to your acts, they never happened.
Just because the House had a vote isn’t enough to give it effect; formal action has to be taken to provide it.
This is the case with passing bills and its also the case with impeachment.
Democrats of course are free to have buyers’ remorse about but they have no right to withhold the benefits of trial from Trump for their political convenience.
If the political calculus is no longer favorable to them, neither the Senate GOP nor Trump is obligated to make them whole.
Trump still enjoys the presumption of innocence regardless of what the Democrats ultimately do or don’t do with their articles of impeachment.
Andrew McCarthy is right: we are living in stupid times, indeed.
Every ba kyard or constitutional lawyer can argue both sides of this till they are blue in the face. Thats why we have a chief justice and supreme court to settle this issue
It is nothing but structural process (govt paperwork) but the House clerk must file and make public the House proceedings in the public register. Once that is done the Senate must take up their end of the impeachment proceedings. Nowhere does it state specifically that the written articles of impeachment needs to the human walked over to the Senate clerk and thus officially delivered and in the hands of the Senate.
I know, I know, it’s all semantic fluff but the processes established in antiquity are still to be followed today and have been up to this point.
This has always been a process on autopilot. Nobody has ever stopped this normal flow between houses before, that I’ve been able to find. (Other than bill spelling errors needing correction caught by the clerk)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.