Could George Bush be impeached from presidency ?

Recently stumbled upon a very very important piece of information that could apparently trigger a milestone in the history of the United States of America.

The main fact at hand is the impeachement of President W. George Bush by a certain state legislation that was previously undiscovered and in the history of the United States uninvoked. Before I dwell into the intricacies of this topic I must give some foreground into American political system.

The US has a federal government, and under that government are 50 state governments. It is not a simple hierarchical thing as most would imagine. Well, in a way it is, but in a way it is not because most of the states existed as entities before they became part of the federal government.

The 13 states before there was a federal government at all, and many of the the state governments were territories (not-quite-states, but with government etc.) before they became states.

So the state under consideration from now, is one of the states. The state legislatures work on a similar model to the federal government. There is usually a lower house that is proportional to population, and an upper house that is proportional to geography. They both have to pass a bill for it to become law.

A “joint resolution” is a way to frame a law as a resolution that must be passed by both houses, since it’s passed by both houses (if successful), it then becomes law.

In most states and the federal government, bills are numbered under the house where they are brought to a vote. The law we are talking about happens to be the 125th joint resolution as passed in the Illinois House. The numbering in the state senate may be different or may be the same.

The House of Representatives, or “House“, is the lower house. The “Senate” is the upper house.

Apparently nobody knew that a state legislature was allowed to vote to impeach a president. It was buried in the rules of the federal legislature and never noticed, or at least not in the last 100 or 200 years.

Representative Karen A. Yarbrough stumbled on this little known and never utlitized rule of the US House of Representatives, Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives (search for state) , which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature. From there, Illinois House Joint Resolution 125 (hereafter to be referred to as HJR0125) was introduced.

A synopsis of the motion is,

Urges the General Assembly to submit charges to the U. S. House of Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States, George W. Bush, for willfully violating his Oath of Office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and if found guilty urges his removal from office and disqualification to hold any other office in the United States.

The status of the bill as it is passed would be intresting to follow. The US Constitution sets forth the basic capabilities and limits of each branch of the government. Even though it’s allowed to be done by the states, the impeachement of the President of the United States is not in the constitution. It appears to be in the parliamentary rules used in the Federal Senate, or maybe the House, or both.

But it is not sure if there are any loopholes and personally I hope not. The original source and the motion detail five specific charges against President Bush including one that is specified to be a felony, the complete text of HJR0125 is copied below at the end of this article. One of the interesting points is that one of the items, the one specified as a felony, that the NSA was directed by the President to spy on American citizens without warrant, is not in dispute.

Should HJR0125 be passed by the Illinois General Assembly, the US House will be forced by House Rules to take up the issue of impeachment as a privileged bill, meaning it will take precedence over other House business.

It would have to pass both the house and senate to enter the house at the federal level, but if it does then they can’t ignore it. Then the whole scenario should get very intresting.

The impeachment process may be triggered by non-members, for example: when the Judicial Conference of the United States suggests a federal judge be impeached; an Independent Counsel advises the House of information which he or she believes constitutes grounds for impeachment; by message from the President; or by a charge from a State or territorial legislature or grand jury; or by petition. (Reference: Wikipedia).

The House debates the resolution and may at the conclusion consider the resolution as a whole or vote on each article of impeachment individually. A simple majority of those present and voting is required for each article or the resolution as a whole to pass. If the House votes to impeach, managers are selected to present the case to the Senate.

The proceedings unfold in the form of a trial, with each side having the right to call witnesses and perform cross-examinations. The hearing requires a simple majority of the Senators as a quorum. After the hearing the deliberations take place in private. Conviction requires a two-thirds majority. The Senate may vote thereafter to punish the individual only by removing her or him from office, or by barring her or him from holding future office, or both. Alternatively, it may impose no punishment. But in the case of executive officers, removal follows automatically upon conviction. The defendant remains liable to criminal prosecution.

Apparently the house has sole authority, it does not matter what anything else says, thats the way it is. state legislatures have no constitutional basis for initiating impeachment as of now. That is until this law was discovered.

The thing is after Illinos took this step California Assemblyman Paul Koretz of Los Angeles (where the LA Times has now called for Cheney’s resignation) has submitted amendments to Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39, calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney.

The more states that take up this matter the smoother it will proceed.

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HJ0125 LRB094 20306 RLC 58347 r

1 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

2 WHEREAS, Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules of
3 the United States House of Representatives allows federal
4 impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of
5 a state legislature; and

6 WHEREAS, President Bush has publicly admitted to ordering
7 the National Security Agency to violate provisions of the 1978
8 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony, specifically
9 authorizing the Agency to spy on American citizens without
10 warrant; and

11 WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that President Bush authorized
12 violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions,
13 a treaty regarded a supreme law by the United States
14 Constitution; and

15 WHEREAS, The Bush Administration has held American
16 citizens and citizens of other nations as prisoners of war
17 without charge or trial; and

18 WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration
19 has manipulated intelligence for the purpose of initiating a
20 war against the sovereign nation of Iraq, resulting in the
21 deaths of large numbers of Iraqi civilians and causing the
22 United States to incur loss of life, diminished security and
23 billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses; and

24 WHEREAS, The Bush Administration leaked classified
25 national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an
26 unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential
27 harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to
28 investigate the matter; and

29 WHEREAS, The Republican-controlled Congress has declined

HJ0125 – 2 – LRB094 20306 RLC 58347 r

1 to fully investigate these charges to date; therefore, be it

2 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
3 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
4 SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly of the
5 State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S.
6 House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President
7 of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office
8 to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
9 States; and be it further

10 RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the
11 charges contained herein, should be removed from office and
12 disqualified to hold any other office in the United States.

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References:-

Bush Impeachment – The Illinois State Legislature is Preparing to Drop a Bombshell

California Becomes Second State to Introduce Bush Impeachment

Full Text of HJR0125 – Illinois House Joint Resolution 125

Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules – House Rules Manual — House Document No. 104-272

The United States of America Impeachment Procedure

Wiki on Bush Impeachement