Comments on FIRE JOE MORGAN: That's What Friends Are For

Go, Devin, Go!According to Article XXI of the Colo...

2007-12-20T17:37:00.000-05:00

Go, Devin, Go!

According to Article XXI of the Colorado State Constitution, if Woody Paige was a state congressman, one would only have to get enough signatures on a petition to equal 25% of the number of people who initially voted for Woody, and you could hold a recall election. Then a simple majority could boot him out.

Colorado is one of only 18 'recall states' in the nation.

We continue now with James, commenting on what his...

2007-12-20T16:36:00.000-05:00

We continue now with James, commenting on what historians call "The First Impeachment," that of Tennessee Senator William Blount in the late 170's.

Blount was impeached by the House, but the Senate dismissed the charges, not because they believed Blount was innocent (they expelled him from the Senate), but because they believed the House had erred and they did not have jurisdiction. The Constitution says "civil officers" can be impeached, and commentators generally agree that the term "civil officers" refers only to executive and judicial branch officers. Since then, Representatives and Senators found guilty of malfeasance have been expelled by the house to which they belong rather than impeached in the two-stage process of impeachment by the House and expulsion by the Senate.

This blog is just a long civics lesson at this point.

Let's keep this going with Adam:Neither Eric nor J...

2007-12-20T16:28:00.000-05:00

Let's keep this going with Adam:

Neither Eric nor Jonathan is right.

The Constitution limits impeachment to "[t]he President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States. . . ." A dispute exists to this day whether members of Congress are "civil officers of the United States." The dispute remains unresolved and is largely academic because both the House and Senate have their own expulsion procedures if a rep or senator misbehaves.

This comments section is one more post away from becoming its own blog about the Constitution.

And now Jonathan writes in to say that congresspeo...

2007-12-20T12:10:00.000-05:00

And now Jonathan writes in to say that congresspeople definitely can get impeached.

I am sure you've gotten like 40 e-mails about this already, but congressmen definitely can be impeached. The House of Reps. has the power to impeach any Federal government official (judges, reps, senators, president) and then the Senate tries them. In fact, the first person impeached was Sen. William Blount, a member of Congress. As far as I know no Rep. has ever been impeached (I did one Google search, but I like to think of myself as the Joe Morgan of legal analysis) but either way they definitely can be.

I am stubbornly going to continue to not look this up, in the hopes of being able to print an infinite number of conflicting errata/addenda to this post that no one will ever read. And yes, I know I split an infinitive, but in this case I think it was warranted.

Eric points out that congresspeople cannot be impe...

2007-12-20T12:09:00.000-05:00

Eric points out that congresspeople cannot be impeached, which I did not know. And have not yet verified. But Eric seems like a smart guy, so I'll assume he's correct.