?old salt wrote: ↑Sat Jan 09, 2021 9:17 pm If Trump is impeached by the House before he leaves office, but not convicted by the Senate until after he leaves office, can he still be barred from holding future office ? Would SCOTUS find that Constitutional ? Would there be due process questions if precedent is not followed with full House hearings & a Senate trial ? If they do it, they need to make it stick & drive a stake through his heart, so there's no question that he can't run again.
It's not worth doing just for political purposes. It will be very risky. After this past week, the country's ready to blow apart.
I answered or tried to answer most of those questions in my post which preceded yours.
As to due process, actually the president technically has no due process rights under the constitution in impeachment proceedings. Given that due process, though, is such an integral part of our society, I expect some measure of due process would be applied. But how much will be up to the Senate, and not reviewable by a court.
The only way, in my view, to make 100% sure he can't ever run again would be to impeach, convict, and disqualify before Jan. 20. I suspect if they convict and disqualify after Jan. 20, that that would stick, though T**** might be able to get a court to hear whether the Senate can constitutionally convict him after he's left office. As a practical matter, I think the case is most likely to come up in the context of disqualify only after Jan. 20.
Yes, there is a risk. But T**** doesn't get to control what is done and not done simply because he tried to institute a revolution. Should Lincoln have simply let the South secede?
I think it is important that the Congress make clear to any future president that conduct like this will result in impeachment, removal, and disqualification. We simply can't have the president trying to overthrow the government. Would seem to go without saying.