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A Constitutional loophole.

Perotista said:
Impeachment was never meant to be easy. A simple majority in the House can bring impeachment charges forcing a trial in the senate. But it takes 2/3rds vote in the senate to convict and remove, 67 senators if all are present and voting. As for pardoning himself, the SCOTUS would have to rule on that. Yes, the Constitution is moot, but we can fall back on original intent of the framers. Here's an interesting article on self-pardoning.

Self-Pardons: The President Can't Pardon Himself, So Why Do People Think He Can? - Lawfare

The reality of the situation is we won't know if he can or can't until the SCOTUS rules. Opinions on the law and the Constitution are just that until the SCOTUS rules on it. Then it is no longer an opinion, but fact.
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From your link. I don't know where to start with this: “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises [in order] to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general welfare of the United States.”

This author couldn't be more wrong if he tried- I suspect this is a great example of why we are in the shape we're in. Even if his thinking? is for expediency it's a sad day.

He is conflating an issue by referencing 2 separate things, inaccurately.
1, there is no "and" in the preamble which is the common defense and general Welfare - they are separate.
2, The correct presentation is: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, *provide for the common defence*, **promote** the general **Welfare**, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America

Making a word a noun by capitalizing it changes it- not capitalizing it changes it- when not capitalizing it becomes prevalent it becomes accepted as fact when in fact it ain't.
It has become prevalent for pin headed esoterics to do that. Personally I think it's intentional. Never mind the authors inaccurate use of the quote(s), he's just flat wrong which tells me the rest of his diatribe is biased/subjective which means his analysis is incomplete so I stopped reading-
 
Glitch said:
Ford pardon Nixon after he resigned. No President can pardon anyone who is being impeached. Nixon was no longer the President, just an ordinary citizen, when Ford pardoned him. Ford did not overrule "the system." Ford would not have been able to pardon anyone if he was not already President. Which means that Nixon could not have been President when Ford pardoned him. You have an extremely faulty memory. Do you even think these things through?
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Talk about OTL. Repeated to the point of overeating.
 
bluesmoke said:
Ford pardoned Nixon to avoid Nixon attempting to go through the impeachment process and, in essence, put the nation through trial (Thank you, mommy). Something that really pissed me off at the time because doing so did not allow the system to "work". Ford overruled the system. For all I know, had Ford not pardoned Nixon, he might still have quit once the impeachment process went to the House for a vote. Or, w/o a pardon, and Nixon still quit, could Congress have impeached and convicted in absentia? Don't know. Ford wouldn't let us find out if the system worked.
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Ford pardoned Nixon to avoid a criminal trial for conspiracy. Nixon resigned before the House voted to impeach.
 
Glitch said:
Ford pardoned Nixon after-the-fact. Nixon had already resigned by the time he received his pardon from Ford. "Abuse of Power" is also not a federal crime, so even without the pardon it is not something he could have been charged, tried, or convicted. Abuse of power is a political charge only usable for impeachments. Abuse of Power is not pardonable specifically because it is not a federal offense.
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Correct. He could have been indicted for conspiracy to commit burglary.
 
Gdjjr said:
From your link. I don't know where to start with this: “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises [in order] to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general welfare of the United States.”

This author couldn't be more wrong if he tried- I suspect this is a great example of why we are in the shape we're in. Even if his thinking? is for expediency it's a sad day.

He is conflating an issue by referencing 2 separate things, inaccurately.
1, there is no "and" in the preamble which is the common defense and general Welfare - they are separate.
2, The correct presentation is: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, *provide for the common defence*, **promote** the general **Welfare**, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America

Making a word a noun by capitalizing it changes it- not capitalizing it changes it- when not capitalizing it becomes prevalent it becomes accepted as fact when in fact it ain't.
It has become prevalent for pin headed esoterics to do that. Personally I think it's intentional. Never mind the authors inaccurate use of the quote(s), he's just flat wrong which tells me the rest of his diatribe is biased/subjective which means his analysis is incomplete so I stopped reading-
Click to expand...

Correct, and the Preamble to the Constitution is just that, a Preamble. This does nothing, it grants no power at all, it spells out why the Constitution was enacted and then goes on to list how those statements would be enacted.
 
Gdjjr said:
From your link. I don't know where to start with this: “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises [in order] to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general welfare of the United States.”

This author couldn't be more wrong if he tried- I suspect this is a great example of why we are in the shape we're in. Even if his thinking? is for expediency it's a sad day.

He is conflating an issue by referencing 2 separate things, inaccurately.
1, there is no "and" in the preamble which is the common defense and general Welfare - they are separate.
2, The correct presentation is: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, *provide for the common defence*, **promote** the general **Welfare**, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America

Making a word a noun by capitalizing it changes it- not capitalizing it changes it- when not capitalizing it becomes prevalent it becomes accepted as fact when in fact it ain't.
It has become prevalent for pin headed esoterics to do that. Personally I think it's intentional. Never mind the authors inaccurate use of the quote(s), he's just flat wrong which tells me the rest of his diatribe is biased/subjective which means his analysis is incomplete so I stopped reading-
Click to expand...

Huh? Have you never read Art. 1, s. 8, cl.1 of the Constitution - The Taxing and Spending Clause?
 
Gdjjr said:
From your link. I don't know where to start with this: “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises [in order] to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general welfare of the United States.”

This author couldn't be more wrong if he tried- I suspect this is a great example of why we are in the shape we're in. Even if his thinking? is for expediency it's a sad day.

He is conflating an issue by referencing 2 separate things, inaccurately.
1, there is no "and" in the preamble which is the common defense and general Welfare - they are separate.
2, The correct presentation is: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, *provide for the common defence*, **promote** the general **Welfare**, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America

Making a word a noun by capitalizing it changes it- not capitalizing it changes it- when not capitalizing it becomes prevalent it becomes accepted as fact when in fact it ain't.
It has become prevalent for pin headed esoterics to do that. Personally I think it's intentional. Never mind the authors inaccurate use of the quote(s), he's just flat wrong which tells me the rest of his diatribe is biased/subjective which means his analysis is incomplete so I stopped reading-
Click to expand...

From United States v. Butler, 297 U. S. 75 (1936)

If the novel view of the General Welfare Clause now advanced in support of the tax were accepted, that clause would not only enable Congress to supplant the States in the regulation of agriculture and of all other industries as well, but would furnish the means whereby all of the other provisions of the Constitution, sedulously framed to define and limit the power of the United States and preserve the powers of the States, could be broken down, the independence of the individual States obliterated, and the United States converted into a central government exercising uncontrolled police power throughout the Union superseding all local control over local concerns.
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The power granted by the US Constitution under Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 is the power to levy taxes. It is not a power granted to Congress to do whatever they please to "provide for the common Defense and general welfare of the United States," but only "to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises" for that purpose.
 
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