Robert Reich served as Secretary of Labor under William Jefferson Clinton. He has also been a professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. So, you would think that he’s taken a high school Civics course and/or actually read the Constitution. But you’d clearly be dead wrong.
Robert Reich thinks, that because Impeachment is not likely to occur, and even if it did, Trump’s conviction and removal from office is yet more unlikely, he can personally simply invent a whole new process and procedure to set aside 60-odd million votes and the results of a US presidential election.
Impeachment isn’t enough.
Impeachment would remedy Trump’s “high crimes and misdemeanors.†But impeachment would not remedy Trump’s unconstitutional presidency because it would leave in place his vice president, White House staff and Cabinet, as well as all the executive orders he issued and all the legislation he signed, and the official record of his presidency.
The only response to an unconstitutional presidency is to annul it. Annulment would repeal all of an unconstitutional president’s appointments and executive actions, and would eliminate the official record of the presidency.
Annulment would recognize that all such appointments, actions, and records were made without constitutional authority.
The Constitution does not specifically provide for annulment of an unconstitutional presidency. But read as a whole, the Constitution leads to the logical conclusion that annulment is the appropriate remedy for one.
After all, the Supreme Court declares legislation that doesn’t comport with the Constitution null and void, as if it had never been passed.
It would logically follow that the Court could declare all legislation and executive actions of a presidency unauthorized by the Constitution to be null and void, as if Trump had never been elected.
The Constitution also gives Congress and the states the power to amend the Constitution, thereby annulling or altering whatever provisions came before. Here, too, it would logically follow that Congress and the states could, through amendment, annul a presidency they determine to be unconstitutional.
As I’ve said, my betting is Trump remains president at least through 2020 – absent compelling and indisputable evidence he rigged the 2016 election.
But if such evidence comes forth, impeachment isn’t an adequate remedy because Trump’s presidency would be constitutionally illegitimate.
It should be annulled.
What Robert Reich has in mind for Trump is the fate of that sinful King of Runazar in Lord Dunsany’s tale, whom the Gods decided must not only cease to be, but must cease ever to have been.
This one is so crazy that I guess even the New York Times turned it down.
Dick the Butcher
He actually said it.
The left wants to end American democracy. Elections/votes only matter when they win.
Soon enough it will be bullets instead of ballots. The civil war will be seriously uncivil.
Dick the Butcher
This morning’s news from Hell: “McCain and Teddy Chappaquiddick Slam Trump!”
alanstorm
Who cares what “Third” Reich has to say?
steve walsh
You know what was successfully annulled? Ted Kennedy’s first marriage, that’s what. Of course, the Catholic Church actually has a process and set of rules/laws for annulling a marriage.
Fred
Just annul everybody named Reich. See how that works there buddy boy?
Aggie
Nice to see that Robert Reich hasn’t lost his touch with advancing age. He’s still an ass.
Seattle Sam
Short people got no reason
To live
— Randy Newman
JK Brown
I’m still holding out for Dems to impeach Trump, vote for removal sometime in mid-2020. Then Trump wins re-election that November.
Would the Supreme Court vote to deny the voters their choice?
But the economy is humming, unemployment is at record lows. An annulment would undo all that as well. In the end, voters vote for their economic well-being. It is during periods where the ‘elite’ have prove unable to provide prosperity that things become unsettled. Reagan’s economy put an end to the radicals blowing stuff up in the ’70s as much as anything.
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