On Impeachment: The Presidency on Trial

June 15, 2020
This entry in the new Penguin Liberty series digs into a controversial issue that has always polarized the nation. Brettschneider, a professor of constitutional law at Brown University who also serves as the series editor, offers historical context on presidential impeachment through a selection of documents on the impeachments of three presidents: Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. Perhaps the perspective on Donald Trump's impeachment has been deemed too recent for a full analysis, but having three cases without the fourth seems incomplete, and the charges of political partisanship and polarization in the Trump case are certainly connected to the two previous ones. Each of the sections include some of the documentation preceding the impeachment, the Articles of Impeachment from the House of Representatives, and excerpts of the arguments presented before the Senate. In the prefatory material, Brettschneider intriguingly analyzes why the constitutional framers decided that impeachment trials should be conducted by the Senate rather than the Supreme Court. The context provides illumination on two issues that resurfaced during the Trump proceedings: whether the "high crimes and misdemeanors" referenced in the Constitution requires that the president be guilty of criminal activity and whether a sitting president can be prosecuted on criminal charges. The answer to the first would seem to be a resounding "no," as the annotation shows that the language was particular to impeachment proceedings and not criminal proceedings, while the latter remains a point of contention. One gets the sense that Johnson's white supremacist obstructionism justified his removal from office, though the specific grounds for his impeachment were much narrower. It's also clear that Nixon would have lost his case in the Senate had he not resigned. That leaves Clinton and Trump, whose partisans and detractors aren't likely to find much common ground here. A solid resource for making points or resolving some arguments rather than a collection for casual reading.

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