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Scholars, historians to testify before House about impeachment
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (Court TV) -- Law professors, historians, a former lawmaker from President Nixon's impeachment inquiry and a former attorney general head the witness list for a House hearing next Monday on "The Background and History of Impeachment." At issue is the meaning of "high crimes and misdemeanors" and whether the President committed impeachable offenses.
The list, released Monday, includes some familiar names who will support President Clinton, but includes a balance of opinions on the impeachment issue.
Most notable may be historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., a Kennedy administration White House aide. He was among 400 historians who signed a statement last week maintaining that President Clinton's conduct with Monica Lewinsky is not an impeachable offense.
Also testifying is Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, who
argued in an op-ed for the Boston Globe that impeachment is the wrong way to punish the President. Tribe pointed out that Clinton may be criminally prosecuted after he leaves office.
Wrote Tribe, "There's no need to burn down the house to roast the pig, especially when the pig can be microwaved later."
"History teaches that the phrase 'high crimes and misdemeanors was designed mostly to deal with abuses of power, whether criminal or not, that attack the constitutional order itself and endanger our system of government," argued Tribe. "[I]t seems hard to believe that our very system of government has been threatened by Clinton's orchestration of lies to cover up a tawdry sexual affair with an intern."
Court TV's selection of highlights.
"I do not think the founders would have regarded this as a high crime or misdemeanor," Schlesinger said last week. He told Court TV Online that he had not yet prepared his testimony for Monday.
Several witnesses will testify that perjury and obstruction of justice are impeachable offenses.
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Stephen Presser of the Northwestern University School of Law is among the academics testifying Nov 9.
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Stephen B. Presser, who teaches legal history at Northwestern University School of Law, will testify that the framers of the Constitution would have interpreted "high crimes and misdemeanors" broadly. One question he says would be relevant to the framers: does the official in question have the "virtue and integrity and honor to carry out his duties?"
If the charges brought against Clinton by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and Judiciary Committee Counsel David Schippers are proven true, Presser says the president should be impeached.
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Article II, section 4 of the Constitution states: "The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." |
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"If true," says Presser, "what you have is a case of a President, who instead of enforcing the laws and constitution of this country, set out to undermine them." That, he says, qualifies as "high crimes and misdemeanors."
Attorney Charles Cooper, who was appointed by former President George Bush to serve on the National Committee on Judicial Discipline and Removal, will testify about the relevance of three impeachments of federal judges to the current investigation. Harry Claiborne, Alcee Hastings, and Walter Nixon, Jr. were impeached and removed from office in the 1980s.
Those judges, says Cooper, lied under oath, which is what Clinton is accused of doing. "He's been charged with offenses that are impeachable," says Cooper.
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John O. McGinnis, a professor at Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, testifying before the House subcommittee.
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Another witness, John O. McGinnis, who teaches at Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, argued that, from a constitutional standpoint, Clinton's behavior merits impeachment. McGinnis was one of twelve constitutional law experts participating in a round-table about impeachment sponsored by the National Law Journal in October. He argued that it isn't tenable to have a president who perjures himself and obstructs justice. McGinnis clerked for Starr in 1984-85, when Starr was a federal judge in Washington.
Another subcommittee witness, University of Chicago Law School professor Cass Sunstein, has argued that unless Starr offers additional evidence, impeaching the president would probably be unconstitutional.
The witness list also includes Carter administration Attorney General Griffin Bell, and Rev. Robert Drinan, a law professor at Georgetown University and former congressman who served on the House Judiciary Committee during the Nixon impeachment investigation. Bell will also testify that Clinton's actions are impeachable. Drinan has said he does not believe Clinton committed an impeachable offense.
George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley will testify about the role of the House of Representatives in the impeachment process.
—Aldina Vazao
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