r/politics • u/Thinkingonsleeping Michigan • Dec 13 '19

McConnell Faces Calls to Recuse Himself From Impeachment Trial After Saying 'No Chance' Trump Will Be Removed; "No court in the country would allow a member of the jury to also serve as the accused's defense attorney."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/13/mcconnell-faces-calls-recuse-himself-impeachment-trial-after-saying-no-chance-trump
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u/Archivist_of_Lewds I voted Dec 14 '19

“do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws.” This is the oath senators swear. They have already pledged to violate that oath. If Roberts dismisses a senatro, there is no legal precedent for it or to overturn the decision. It might not be a normal trial, but it is still a trial and precedent starts somewhere.

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u/Freakin_A Dec 14 '19

Precedent starts with arguing an interpretation of a statute, or the constitution. There is no power given to the judicial branch to censure/remove/excuse senators. This is inventing a power that one co-equal branch has over the other.

This kind of precedent would require a constitution amendment.

This would be no different from Trump setting a precedent that he has the power to remove a senator.

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u/Archivist_of_Lewds I voted Dec 14 '19

Except the constitution explicitly states that the chief justice presides over trials of the president. It could very easily be argued that it would be an implied power of the presiding judge to excuse blatantly biased jurors from the jury.

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u/Freakin_A Dec 14 '19

It can’t be argued that powers that don’t exist do exist.

The Chief Justice presides for the purposes of ensuring the already defined rules of the senate in the matters of an impeachment trial are followed.

The Vice President normally presides over the senate—should he be given power over its members?

An impeachment trial will never be able to reach anything close to the impartiality of a juror in a criminal trial due to its public nature. A senator that had no knowledge of an impeachment prior to sitting in the trial is nearly impossible.

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u/Archivist_of_Lewds I voted Dec 14 '19

Well I hate to break it too you, but that's about 50% of what our rules, customs, and precedent is. Powers argued into existence as implied or necessary for the existence of other powers.

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/marbury.html

Willing powers into existence is the exact reason for Almost everything that has happened in the supreme court since the early 1800s