Robert Reich: Don't Just Impeach Trump. Annul His Presidency.
Is this even doable?
http://prospect.org/article/don%E2%80%99t-just-impeach-trump-annul-his-presidency
Don’t Just Impeach Trump. Annul His Presidency.
Robert Reich
August 28, 2018
Impeachment would remedy Trump’s “high crimes and misdemeanors.” But it would not remedy Trump’s unconstitutional presidency.
snip//
The only response to an unconstitutional presidency is to annul it. Annulment would repeal all of it—recognizing that such appointments, orders, rules, 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 to be 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. (Clearly, any Trump appointee to the Court would have to recuse himself from any such decision.)
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.
After the Trump administration was annulled, the Speaker of the House (third in the order of presidential succession) would take over the presidency until a special election.
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 even if Trump is removed, his presidency—all that he and his administration did when he occupied office—would be constitutionally illegitimate.
It should be annulled.
http://prospect.org/article/don%E2%80%99t-just-impeach-trump-annul-his-presidency
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