Friday, November 02, 2018

Grounds for Impeachment?

No; he actually cannot do that.
Trump vows to end birthright citizenship with executive order:
President Donald Trump said in an interview that he plans to sign an executive order ending "birthright citizenship" for the children of non-American citizens who are born on U.S. soil, a move that would likely be challenged immediately in the courts over its constitutionality.
American Democrats have been waiting for President Trump to make a misstep, and he just tripped over his big mouth with this statement.

The office of the President is an "executive" position, which means he is responsible for executing the law.  He cannot make, change or delete laws ... which are based on the Constitution.

Trump's declaration that he can end "birthright citizenship" puts him in the political position of attempting to undermine the Constitution, and that might reasonably be grounds for a move for impeachment.

Which will certainly happen.

Impeachment isn't necessarily the same as removing him from office, but it certainly is justification for requiring him to resign (as did Nixon) with a sufficient number of responsible Republican Congressmen to reinforce the inevitable Democratic motion.

He has crossed the Rubicon, and he's not an American Caesar ... he's not strong enough to defeat all of his enemies when his own party concurs that he has overstepped his authority.

I voted for Trump on the basis that he was "Not Hillary"; but this move puts him in the same category as the power-mad Clinton family.

If there's a small town in America who is looking for a new dog-catcher, I can name a candidate.
Although it may offend the dogs.

Here's the bad news: his replacement is likely to be the vice president; and can anybody even remember HIS name?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe the Geek should read the 14th Amendment and actually investigate the history of birthright citizenship, and some court cases on it, before he makes this emotional decision.

Mark said...

There is an increasing number of constitutional scholars who say he can.

Anonymous said...

The first sentence of the 14th Amendment states that " All persons born or naturalized in the United States AND SUBJECT TO THE JURISDICTION THEREOF are citizens of the United State. An illegal alien mother who pops across the border illegally in the last days of her pregnancy, to drop an anchor baby in the U.S. is not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. nor is her baby. They are subject to the jurisdiction of the country from which they came. There are court cases to support this. Like many parts of the Constitution which they don't agree with, liberals have chosen to ignore the the first sentence of the 14th for the past 50 or 60 years at least.
Antipoda

Anonymous said...

Geek doesn't need facts .....

Jerry The Geek said...

Such fun, reading the comments from people who know more about the Constitution than I do!

I learn a lot from the reader comments. I learn ... the screen names of people whose opinions differ from mine.

But if they want to take me to school, I DO wish they would be more specific in the reasons for their disagreement.

For example, the anonymous comment "Maybe the Geek should read the 14th Amendment and actually investigate the history of birthright citizenship, and some court cases on it, before he makes this emotional decision."

I'm unclear what salient points I'm missing in the constitutional amendment which states that anyone born in the United States is automatically an American citizen.

And I'm also unclear what criticism exists when I make the point that the President cannot arbitrarily denounce a Constitutional amendment ... after all, the Constitution was not enacted to empower politicians, but to limit their ability to undermine our rights as citizens.

Well, I'm old and foolish. I'm sure someone who objected to my original statement will care enough to come back and educate this old fool with some actual facts.