I spent a semester at the University of Cincinnati Law School.\u00a0\u00a0It was one of those things I had to know.\u00a0\u00a0After graduating from college and three years of high school teaching, I still had to find out if Law School was for me.\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t regret a second of that semester.\u00a0\u00a0I worked hard in school and also managed a political campaign in Cincinnati.\u00a0\u00a0But in the end, buried away in the Law Library, I figured out that while the law fascinated me, teaching was my calling.\u00a0\u00a0It didn\u2019t help that the UC track was right down the street from the Law Building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So when my old boss, superintendent Pete Nix, interrupted studying for my final Torts exam and asked if I wanted to be an eighth-grade history teacher and the high school boys track coach, I didn\u2019t hesitate.\u00a0\u00a0I said yes.\u00a0\u00a0The hesitation came when I had to call Dad and tell him what I was going to do.\u00a0\u00a0It took several months to win him over, though once he came around, he supported me throughout my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t claim expertise in the Law. What I have is twenty-eight years of explaining the Constitution to eighth graders through seniors. They asked all of the easy questions and most of the hard ones, and fact-checked my answers year in and year out. So while my advanced degree is a Masters in Education, not a Juris Doctor, I do have some understanding of the United States Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today\u2019s essay isn\u2019t really about politics.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s about the United States Constitution, and the how it applies to the Congress and the President of the United States today.\u00a0\u00a0Time is running out for the Trump Administration, with only eight days to go before the clock runs out at noon on Wednesday, January 20th<\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0That, by the way, is a Constitutional mandate, specified in the 20th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment, the one that moved the Inauguration from March 4th<\/sup>\u00a0to the January date.\u00a0\u00a0Think about how much happened from November of 1860, until March of 1861.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Multiple states seceded, Ft. Sumter was under threat, and the incoming President Abraham Lincoln could do nothing about it for four months.\u00a0\u00a0And it took more than seventy years, until Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s second term, for the date to be changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yesterday a resolution to impeach Donald Trump was introduced in the House of Representatives.\u00a0\u00a0The House has the sole power to impeach a President, that is, to bring charges against him.\u00a0\u00a0It takes a simple majority vote.\u00a0\u00a0And this time, unlike a year ago (seems like a lifetime), there won\u2019t be long involved hearings and legal testimonies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The House will bring the Impeachment Resolution directly to the whole body for a vote, probably tomorrow, bypassing the usual Committee process.\u00a0\u00a0Their argument:\u00a0\u00a0the actions of the President are so apparent, inciting the \u201csacking\u201d of the US Capitol to stop the Electoral ballot count, that the committee hearing process isn\u2019t necessary.\u00a0\u00a0As Donald Trump would say, he literally stood in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shot someone.\u00a0\u00a0There isn\u2019t really a whole lot to argue about those facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The question is, with only a few days to go, why Impeach the President at all?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0First, if the Senate was willing to act with the same alacrity, Donald Trump could be removed from office within the week.\u00a0\u00a0He wouldn\u2019t be able to use the Presidency to further damage the nation.\u00a0\u00a0But we all know, the Senate, controlled by Mitch McConnell and the Republicans, won\u2019t do that.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, impeaching the President will give Donald Trump an American \u201cfirst\u201d. He\u2019ll be the only President to be impeached twice, a dubious honor. And the word \u201cimpeach\u201d has greater historic weight than the other House option, a \u201ccensure\u201d. Several Presidents have been censured, but even I had to go back to the \u201cbooks\u201d to remember who they are. But Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump are the only Presidents to be impeached. (No, Nixon resigned before the impeachment resolution was passed by the House).<\/p>\n\n\n\n It would tell future President’s that Donald Trump’s actions were unacceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the Senate to convict on the impeachment, it requires a two-thirds majority vote (sixty-seven Senators). There are two Constitutional penalties that can be applied.\u00a0\u00a0The best known, is that the President is immediately removed from office.\u00a0\u00a0But with the this timetable, Donald Trump will already be gone before an impeachment trial starts.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, Leader McConnell’s plan would have the entire trial occurring in the new Democratic controlled Senate, after the Inauguration of Joe Biden.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the second lesser-known penalty that would be applied. The Democrats will control the Senate, but only by the tie-breaking vote of the new Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. Conviction of impeachment would require all of the Democrats and seventeen Republican Senators to agree. But if they did, the second penalty can be imposed by simple majority vote. And that penalty is disqualification from ever running for Federal office again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s what the true penalty would be. Donald Trump could never run for President again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And there is another, lesser thought-of Constitutional process that could be applied.\u00a0\u00a0A strong case can be made that Donald Trump incited insurrection. The law, 18 US Code \u00a72383 defines insurrection as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the legal definition, to be applied by a Court if somehow Donald Trump is charged with the crime of incited insurrection.\u00a0\u00a0And if that happens, and Trump is convicted, he is barred from running for office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Congress has another way to approach the insurrection question.\u00a0\u00a0It all goes back to the end of the Civil War and the series of Amendments called the “Reconstruction Amendments”; the 13th, 14th, and 15th. \u00a0\u00a0The major reason for the 14th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment was the Southern invention called the Black Codes, laws that treated the newly freed slaves as a second and lesser form of citizen, with fewer rights and more legal restrictions.\u00a0\u00a0The 14th<\/sup> defined and required a single class of citizenship for all those in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was in the first clause of the Amendment.\u00a0\u00a0But in the second and third clauses, the Amendment dealt with the issue of the citizenship rights of the defeated Confederates.\u00a0\u00a0The critical phrase that applies today is in the third clause:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo person shall\u2026hold any office, civil or military, under the United States\u2026who, having previously taken an oath\u2026\u00a0to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n On January 20th<\/sup>, 2017, Donald J. Trump made the following oath:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So if he incited insurrection on January 6th<\/sup>, 2021, then he technically violated the 14th<\/sup> Amendment, Clause 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Clause 5 of the Amendment states who decides whether insurrection was committed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article\u201d.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So the House and the Senate could, by majority vote, determine that Donald Trump committed incitement to insurrection, and bar Donald Trump from running from office.\u00a0\u00a0It circumvents the need for conviction on impeachment, and it also would bypass immunity from Court action as a result of Presidential pardon.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the Congress did this , it certainly would result in an appeal to the Courts, as some legal scholars claim that would be a “bill of attainder”, banned by the Constitution. It would end in the Supreme Court, with an uncertain outcome.\u00a0\u00a0But it’s the third option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you were ever in \u201cDahlman\u2019s Class\u201d maybe the best part was \u201copen discussion\u201d days.\u00a0\u00a0And this would have been the perfect topic for an open discussion, though it might have gotten too deep for some.\u00a0\u00a0But it has it all:\u00a0\u00a0current events, Civil War history, intricate Congressional maneuvering, and, of course, that favorite history phrase, \u201cwhat if\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0So, I hope you enjoyed our open discussion today. My best advice: avoid the Mexican pizza in the cafeteria, it smells like my running shoes. Stick to the peanut butter and jelly “Lunchables”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Impeachment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Why Impeach<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Conviction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Insurrection<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The 14th<\/sup><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Open Discussion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n