Designing Presidential Impeachment

Presidential Accountability in Wartime

“…While this might be taken to refer to criminal trials, the wording was equivocal, leaving open the possibility of punishment without criminal proceedings. 90 Indeed, anyone with inside information about the decision-making process probably would have bet against war crimes trials. Still smarting from what happened at Leipzig after World War I, British officials were "deeply impressed with the dangers and difficulties" of such an endeavor, and less than one month before Germany's surrender, Churchill's cabinet still held the view that "a full trial" of Nazi leaders was "out of the question. "…”

“…Nor did he explain how the "final advice" given the president differed from the draft document. 90 Even the most superficial comparison between the draft memorandum and the president's February 7 directive indicates that the arguments put forward by Gonzales and Addington found their way to President Bush. In language the president repeated, the memorandum contrasted the war against terrorism with "the traditional clash between nations adhering to the laws of war" that "formed the backdrop" for the Geneva Conventions.…”

“…Impeachment became the instrument to effectuate the will of the people as the country reached a crisis point with the president linked to this "fundamentally unacceptable" form of governing. 90 Interestingly, while the twothirds vote required for conviction has thus far presented an insurmountable barrier in the United States (putting aside the likely outcome in Watergate had Nixon gone to trial in the Senate), that threshold has not prevented other countries from removing presidents from office through impeachment proceedings. In fact, over seventy countries set more onerous requirements than the United States does, such as a two-thirds vote on the initial question on whether to impeach or three-fourths to convict.…”

“…He alleged that he was kicked in the stomach, punched in the face, denied adequate food (he lost forty pounds during his detention), and repeatedly subjected to strip searches, body cavity searches, and environmental manipulation (air conditioning in winter, heating in summer). 90 According to Iqbal's complaint, this was brought about by an "unconstitutional policy" that discriminated on the basis of race, religion, or national origin. He identified Attorney General Ashcroft as the "principal architect" of this policy, and he said that FBI director Mueller was "instrumental" in implementing it.…”

The Comparative Constitutional of Democratic Backsliding: A Report on the State of the Field

“…Drawing on recently published and forth coming work, we develop a perspective on two specific mech an isms for addressing these concerns: impeach ment and disqualification. 29 One of us has argued that the basic choice facing consti tu tional designers is between 'legal' mech an isms, which involve apolit ical expert bodies such as prosec utors' offices, 'polit ical' mech an isms, which run through elected bodies such as legis latures, or some mix of the two. 30 This dicho tomy runs through the design of impeach ment and disqual i fic a tion alike.…”