IMPEACHMENT---Option or Requirement?

[Demeter]

OpEdNews

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_joseph_l_070107_impeachment___option.htm


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January 7, 2007

IMPEACHMENT---Option or Requirement?

By Just Joe

IMPEACHMENT - (1) The process of calling something into question, as in "impeaching the testimony of a witness." (2) The constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may "impeach" (accuse of misconduct) high officers of the federal government for trial in the Senate.

Witness a crime and don't report it, be you a private or public person. you become an accessory to that crime and subject to prosecution.

IMPEACHMENT is a Requirement!!!!!

So now begs the question of culpability in the congress for witnessing and sharing in high crimes and misdemeanors; and in "We The People" wherein the "Buck Stops".

Reference Government Printing Office Documents http://snipurl.com/16t6e

Begin excerpts from that article:

"Article I, Sec. 2, cl. 5, gives to the House of Representatives ''the sole power of impeachment.''

Article I, Sec. 3,cl. 6, gives to the Senate the sole power to try all impeachments,' requires that Senators be under oath or affirmation when sitting for that purpose, stipulates that the Chief Justice of the United States is to preside when the President of the United States is tried, and provides for conviction on the vote of two-thirds of the members present.

Article I, Sec. 3, cl. 7, limits the judgment after impeachment to removal from office and disqualification from future federal office holding, but it allows criminal trial and conviction following impeachment.

Article II, Sec. 2, cl. 1, deprives the President of the power to grant pardons or reprieves in cases of impeachment.

Article II Sec. 4. The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Article III, Sec. 2, cl. 3, excepts impeachment cases from the jury trial requirement.

The word ''impeachment'' may be used to mean several different things.

Any member of the House may ''impeach'' an officer of the United States by presenting a petition or memorial, which is generally referred to a committee for investigation and report.

The House votes to ''impeach,'' the meaning used in Sec. 4, when it adopts articles of impeachment.

The Senate then conducts a trial on these articles and if the accused is convicted, he has been ''impeached.''

Impeachment, said Madison, was to be used to reach a bad officer sheltered by the President and to remove him ''even against the will of the President; so that the declaration in the Constitution was intended as a supplementary security for the good behavior of the public officers.''

Impeached Senators

1st U.S. senator, William Blount of Tennessee, expelled by impeachment in 1797

Article III, Sec. 1, specifically provides judges with ''good behavior'' tenure, but the Constitution nowhere expressly vests the power to remove upon bad behavior; it has been assumed that judges are made subject to the impeachment power through being labeled ''civil officers.''
Impeached Judges.

twelve of the fifteen impeachments reaching trial in the Senate have been directed at federal judges.

The House of Representatives has approved articles of impeachment for thirteen judges. Two of the judges resigned before the trials in the Senate.

After Senate trials, seven judges were convicted and removed. Those judges who were tried were:

1. John Pickering, District Judge, 1803-1804, convicted
2. Justice Samuel Chase, Supreme Court 1804-1805, acquitted
3. James A. Peck, District Judge, 1830, acquitted
4. West H. Humphreys, District Judge, 1862, convicted
5. Charles Swayne, District Judge, 1904-1905, acquitted
6. Robert W. Archbald, Judge of Commerce Court, 1912-1913, convicted
7. Harold Louderback, District Judge, 1932, acquitted
8. Halsted L. Ritter, 1936, District Judge, convicted,
9. Harry Claiborne, District Judge, 1986, convicted
10. Alcee Hastings, District Judge, 1989, convicted
11. Walter Nixon, District Judge,1989, convicted,

So now what to do?

1. Buy 10 copies of the "Constitution" with introduction by Prof. Bernstien pocket edition (Barnes and Noble suggested for $3.95 apiece). Keep one for yourself and hand out to friends the other 9.
2. Meet with friends (include the whole family) once a week for a Personal Constitutional Restoration party for discussion of the Constitution historically and contemporaneously.
3. Challenge all candidates for public office local, State and Nationally on their knowledge of the constitution and how it applies to the issues. They all are required to take an oath to

* "Support and Defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, Foreign and Domestic".

"We the People" are a "Constitutional Republic" thus a nation of the "Rule of Law". We must be the example for our servants or they will rule our country against us.



Authors Website: www.beinghumanparty.com

Authors Bio: Social Entrepeneur and owner of JBonte Enterprises LLc, Executive Director of a political party, The Being Human Party-Promoting World Peace through Non-Violence

[PoiBoy]

1. Excellent post..!!

GREAT info..!! Thank you.!

:hi:

[Independent_Liberal]

2. Thanks Demeter!

:hi:

[Demeter]

3. My Pleasure, Guys!

Doing what I can to overthrow tyrrany...

[Rick Myers]

4. GREAT find!!!

A good read! K and R

:kick:

[bunny planet]

5. No longer optional IMHO

[Joey Liberal]

6. It's our duty to impeach, if not............

we are accepting an American Hitler.

[puebloknot]

7. Yes, it's the duty of the House to begin impeachment proceedings. However...

...do you know about the Jefferson "protocol" (my designation for the procedures outlined in the Jefferson Manual).

Under those rules, any state legislature can pass a bill of impeachment, and have it delivered to the House in D.C. They are not obligated to begin impeachment, and can table the issue. But under certain conditions, they are required to give an hour of floor time for debate of the issue.

Several states are currently working to get their state legislatures to pass such a bill. It's looking good here in New Mexico, New Jersey and California are working on the same idea. If the House starts to table too man of these bills, it will hurt them politically (with any luck).

Failure to impeach, with the amount of information that is already out in the public domain, simply spells complicity with this rogue administration. Someone posted information saying they should focus on the torture issue because that well in the limelight, out in public already. Witnessess exist who could be called. Other impeachable issues would require more investigation, more subpoenas in an effort to get hidden information. Why not impeach on the one issue that would be easier to prove quickly?

And then the courts can take up all the other charges, of which there are so many!

Thanks for this post! Good one!