Defining "high crimes and misdemeanors": Basic principles

George Washington Law Review

Volumn 67, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 712-725

  Tribe, Laurence H ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0042527894     PISSN: 00168076     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (47)

1. U.S. CONST. art. II, § 4.
2. See JOHN RAWLS, A THEORY OF JUSTICE 12 (1971).
3. 506 U.S. 224 (1993).
4. See id. at 229-30.
5. See LAURENCE H. TRIBE, AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 16 (2d ed. 1988).
6. See, e.g., 116 CONG. REC. 11,913 (1970) (statement of Rep. Gerald Ford). But four years later, Gerald Ford, as Vice President, said he could find no valid grounds to impeach President Richard Nixon. See Philip Shabecoff, Ford Says 'Extreme' Wing Extends Watergate Ordeal, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 16, 1974, at A1.
7. See, e.g., 116 CONG. REC. 11,913 (1970) (statement of Rep. Gerald Ford). But four years later, Gerald Ford, as Vice President, said he could find no valid grounds to impeach President Richard Nixon. See Philip Shabecoff, Ford Says 'Extreme' Wing Extends Watergate Ordeal, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 16, 1974, at A1.
8. See generally WILLIAM H. REHNQUIST, GRAND INQUESTS 143-274 (1992).
9. See Laurence H. Tribe, Taking Text and Structure Seriously: Reflections on Free-Form Method in Constitutional Interpretation, 108 HARV. L. REV. 1221, 1245-48 (1995).
10. U.S. CONST. amend. XIV.
11. See, e.g., ANTONIN SCALIA, A MATTER OF INTERPRETATION: FEDERAL COURTS AND THE LAW 37-47, 133-43 (1997) (dialogue with Laurence Tribe).
12. 2 THE RECORDS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION OF 1787, at 174 (Max Farrand ed., rev. ed. 1937) [hereinafter FARRAND].
13. See id. at 443.
14. U.S. CONST. art. IV, § 2, cl. 2.
15. U.S. CONST. art. I, § 6, cl. 1.
16. U.S. CONST. amend. V.
17. See D.C. CODE ANN. § 22-3502 (1998) (repealed on May 23, 1995 by D.C. Law 10-257, § 501(b), 42 D.C. Reg. 53 (1995)).
18. At least until the relevant Georgia statute, see GA. CODE ANN. § 16-6-2 (1996) (criminalizing oral sex and expressly excluding marriage as a defense to aggravated sodomy), was found by the Georgia Supreme Court to violate that state's constitution. See Powell v. State of Georgia, 510 S.E.2d 18 (Ga. 1998).
19. At least until February 9, 1999, when the relevant Louisiana statute, see LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 14:89 (West 1986) (criminalizing "unnatural carnal copulation" and making no exception for married couples); State v. Phillips, 365 So. 2d 1304, 1308 (La. 1978) (holding that the statute includes oral sex), was struck down by an intermediate state appellate court. See State of Louisiana v. Smith, No. 97-KA-1393, 1999 WL 74614, at *6 (La. Ct. App. Feb. 9, 1999).
20. See VA. CODE ANN. § 18.2-361 (Michie 1996) (criminalizing oral sex and making no exception for married couples).
21. 1 FARRAND, supra note 11, at 78.
22. Although no surviving draft would have eliminated presidential impeachment altogether, that option was favored by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, among other delegates. See 2 FARRAND, supra note 11, at 64-69.
23. See id. at 550.
24. See id. at 172.
25. See id. at 495.
26. See id. at 550.
27. See PETER CHARLES HOFFER & N.E.H. HULL, IMPEACHMENT IN AMERICA, 1635-1805, at 84-85 (1984).
28. See 2 THE RECORDS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787, supra note 11, at 550.
29. Id.
30. Id.
31. Id.
32. See id. at 545.
33. Id. at 600.
34. See 1 COBBETT'S COMPLETE COLLECTION OF STATE TRIALS 89-91 (1809).
35. See 4 WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES *75.
36. See HOFFER & HULL, supra note 26, at 67.
37. See id. at 64-67.
38. See MILTON LOMASK, AARON BURR: THE YEARS FROM PRINCETON TO VICE PRESIDENT, 1756-1805, at 353-361 (1979). The New York murder indictment was quickly replaced, for want of jurisdiction, with the misdemeanor of uttering and sending a challenge. See id. at 357-58.
39. CHARLES BIDDLE, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES BIDDLE 308 (1883) (quoting the letter).
40. See CHARLES L. BLACK, IMPEACHMENT: A HANDBOOK 39 (1974) (advancing a similar argument).
41. See SAM J. ERVIN, JR., THE WHOLE TRUTH: THE WATERGATE CONSPIRACY 282 (1980).
42. See 2 SIR WILLIAM HOLDSWORTH, A HISTORY OF ENGLISH LAW 357, 365 (4th ed. 1982).
43. U.S. CONST. art. II, § 1, cl. 8.
44. See John F. Harris & George Lardner, Jr., Key White House Figure in FBI Files Case on Leave, WASH. POST, June 16, 1996, at A1.
45. See Ann Devroy & Michael Isikoff, Clinton Staff Went Past Reno to FBI, WASH. POST, May 25, 1993, at A1.
46. See HOUSE COMM. ON THE JUDICIARY, IMPEACHMENT OF RICHARD M. NIXON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, H.R. REP. No. 93-1305, at 188 (Aug. 20, 1974) (third article of impeachment) (alleging that Nixon had assumed "to himself functions and judgments necessary to the exercise of the sole power of impeachment vested by the Constitution in the House of Representatives").
47. President Nixon's conduct in thwarting the work of the House Judiciary Committee involved efforts to conceal his own involvement in "actions demonstrated by other evidence to be substantial grounds for impeachment of the President," id., something that could not be said of any possible thwarting of the grand jury's inquiry by President Clinton, and something for which no explanation extrinsic to the executive-legislative clash could be offered.