Thursday, January 23, 2020
Political Mayhem Thursday: All kinds of mayhem and sadness
Yesterday was a messy blur-- I had my first crim law class of the spring (good) and too much other stuff going on to properly keep track of (bad), so I am just catching up on it all now. From what I gather, Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty somehow killed Mr. Peanut, which is a real gift to America's peanut-allergy community. Thank you Gritty!
And then there is the impeachment.
I'm a criminal trial lawyer. The idea of a contested trial without witnesses is ridiculous. The Constitution in unambiguous in setting out that the House presents a charge (which they have) and the Senate conducts a trial . People at the time of the founding of the Republic-- particularly lawyers like James Madison-- knew what a trial was. The leverage of political power to protect the president in an impeachment from merely the presentation of witnesses is a travesty. That's not a trial. That's just not what the Constitution requires.
There are Republican Senators who are trial lawyers like me. They know this is ridiculous. And they say nothing.
It's wrong, and infuriating. Vote to acquit, if you think there is nothing there, but to bar the presentation of evidence marks you as unprincipled political lapdogs.
And now we don't even have Mr. Peanut to console us.
Comments:
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My condolences regarding Mr. Peanut. Gritty is having a tough week.
As for impeachment, I am not a criminal trial lawyer (and my understanding is that James Madison was not much of one either). But I am student of American history and a reader of the Constitution--and I find almost nothing about impeachment in the Constitution unambiguous. I find it all incredibly vague. Almost everything I know about impeachment comes not from the Constitution but historical context, contemporaneous arguments, tradition, precedent, and the subsequent impeachment trials over the course of the centuries.
As for this impeachment, it has failed to capture my imagination or much of my attention. How are things going? Anything happening of which I should take notice?
As for impeachment, I am not a criminal trial lawyer (and my understanding is that James Madison was not much of one either). But I am student of American history and a reader of the Constitution--and I find almost nothing about impeachment in the Constitution unambiguous. I find it all incredibly vague. Almost everything I know about impeachment comes not from the Constitution but historical context, contemporaneous arguments, tradition, precedent, and the subsequent impeachment trials over the course of the centuries.
As for this impeachment, it has failed to capture my imagination or much of my attention. How are things going? Anything happening of which I should take notice?
I think that you might take note that there is a back story happening at the impeachment event. It is a tragedy. After a lifetime of running against the Republican party, Donald J Trump has apparently offended, threatened and chased all the remaining traditional Republicans from his party. His hostile highjacking of the party is complete.This week we watched the final breaths go out of the corpse of the Republican Party that we both have known.
We are hearing plenty of non elected Republicans voice their regrets at the passing of a party that was known for its fairness, civility, honesty and allegiance to the Constitution. Hopefully they will join together to challenge the newly anointed Party of Trump.
Mark,
I think that the Democrats should recognize that a fair trial with witnesses, evidence and structure will not happen. Trumpians don't play that way. They should emphasize that they have sufficient and unchallenged evidence to impeach without new information. They should not push so hard for new evidence. No one will remember if there was a real trial in this age of Trump, all that will be talking about, ad nauseum, will be that there wasn't enough evidence to convict.
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We are hearing plenty of non elected Republicans voice their regrets at the passing of a party that was known for its fairness, civility, honesty and allegiance to the Constitution. Hopefully they will join together to challenge the newly anointed Party of Trump.
Mark,
I think that the Democrats should recognize that a fair trial with witnesses, evidence and structure will not happen. Trumpians don't play that way. They should emphasize that they have sufficient and unchallenged evidence to impeach without new information. They should not push so hard for new evidence. No one will remember if there was a real trial in this age of Trump, all that will be talking about, ad nauseum, will be that there wasn't enough evidence to convict.
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