WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2019 — The American Bar Association has posted a new ABA Legal Fact Check that explores the history and law of congressional impeachments.
Nearly a half century ago, then-U.S. Rep. Gerald Ford of Michigan offered this blunt assessment of what it takes to impeach a sitting federal official during his 1970 attempt to impeach U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history,” he said. As the U.S. House of Representatives begins its fourth impeachment inquiry of a U.S. president, the new ABA Legal Fact Check explains why this remark reflects today’s reality.
ABA Legal Fact Check seeks to help the media and public find dependable answers and explanations to sometimes confusing legal questions and issues. For coverage of other timely issues in the news, these prior ABA Legal Fact Checks might be helpful:
- Click here on what legally constitutes the crime of treason
Click here for under what circumstances, if any, would a president be above the law
Click here for legal look on the authority of a president to issue pardons
Click here on whether it is illegal to boycott the 2020 U.S. census
Click here for legal backgrounder on contempt of Congress
Click here on a president’s emergency powers
The URL for the site is www.abalegalfactcheck.com. Follow us on Twitter @ABAFactCheck.
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