46
Impeachment of a president does not on conviction automatically disqualify the convicted party from becoming president again. However, after conviction, the Senate can vote to add to the punishment of removal from office "disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States." This requires only a simple majority ...
36
There are 2 separate issues here: what happens to such a President and what happens to the person who has been pardoned.
What happens to the person who has been pardoned?
While at least one attempt at reversing a pardon has been discussed in recent history (Clinton's pardon of Mark Rich), there is no case of a pardon that has been reversed without the wishes ...
33
The executive branch of the US government, or specific parts of it, can demand that a person do particular things, when a statute has authorized such a demand. Such demands are not usually made at the level of the President of the United States, but the president could order a specific official to take such action. For example a National Security Letter ...
27
Bribery of public officials is in itself a crime (18 USC § 201), for both the giver and the recipient:
(b) Whoever—
(1) directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers or promises anything of value to any public official...
(A) to influence any official act; ...
(2) being a public official or person selected to be a public official, directly or indirectly,...
25
When and how are pardons supposed to be used? Why does the Constitution even grant the president the power to pardon?
The Constitution provides very little guidance regarding this point, and it isn't clear that the Founders were of one mind about how it was intended to be used.
Relieving Wrongful Or Doubtful Convictions
One important point to keep in ...
19
Let's start with the most important point first:
A campaign finance violation is not a ground to remove an elected official from office, no matter how egregious, on its own, even if one could prove that the campaign finance violation probably caused the outcome of an election to change.
Congress could decide, however, that a campaign finance violation ...
18
First, there is no definitive correct answer to this question because it has never happened over the course of 45 Presidencies. But, it certainly could come up. If the President purports to pardon himself for a federal crime and is then prosecuted, the judicial branch would have to decide if the pardon was valid.
But, I would disagree with the answer from @...
17
If President Trump refuses to execute the war, does that become an act of treason on his part?
Probably not, but it depends on the definition of treason. Congress could decide that it is, impeach him, and remove him from office. They could also remove him from office without using the term treason.
Is he required to act on such a resolution?
Not ...
12
Yes.
You can deny the President entry to your home unless the President has something that constitutes an exception to that right such as a search warrant. The President does not have any special right to trespass on private property.
You need not threaten the President to do so. You would simply say "no, I am not granting you permission to enter. Please ...
11
The US legal code regarding threatening a president is 18 U.S. Code § 871 - Threats against President and successors to the Presidency. The first clause defines how threatening the president is illegal. The second clause starts off by defining "President-elect":
The terms “President-elect” and “Vice President-elect” as used in this section shall mean such ...
11
There is no law governing the 'number' of the president. Common sense suggests that a person can't be 45th and 46th; there must be someone in between having the presidency and they will become the 46th president.
In the extremely unlikely scenario that a foreign power occupies the United States this year, eliminates the office of President, and a few years ...
10
The Twenty-fifth Amendment states:
Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the
President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon
confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
Thus, in the absence of a majority the candidate would be denied the office.
9
The use of the active duty military in a law enforcement role is not unconstitutional but it is prohibited by the posse comitatus act. 18 U.S.C. § 1385 (adopted 1878).
The text of the relevant legislation is as follows:
18 U.S.C. § 1385. Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus
Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized
...
9
The language argument about the constitution is that the Constitution uses the pronoun "he" in referring to the president – they would not have used the construction "he or she", or "s/he". Article I also uses "he" to refer to qualifications of representatives and senators (residency, age). Then in creating the office of predident pro tempore of the Senate, ...
9
The canonical example is Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon.
9
Yes. The absence of immunity for a U.S. President's unofficial acts was established both in the Nixon Administration and later in the Clinton Administration.
In practice, a prosecutor would be loath to file such charges absent very, very solid probable cause, and a court would often be very deferential in accommodating the President's schedule and, for ...
9
There will be a gap in succession, but only briefly.
Speaker Paul Ryan's term extends past the election through the end of the 115th Congress, to 11:59:59 p.m. on January 2, 2018.
From there, the speakership is vacant until the 116th House of Representatives elects a successor. Traditionally, the House convenes at noon on January 3 of the year after an ...
8
What Is Treason?
Treason is the only crime defined in the U.S. Constitution, at Article III, Section 3 which says:
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war
against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and
comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the
testimony of two witnesses to the ...
8
Yes.
The President can pardon everyone (with the possible exception of himself) of crimes, and can pardon people by category rather than by name.
But, the President can only pardon federal crimes that have been committed and are mentioned in the pardon. However, the federal crimes do not have to have resulted in convictions or even charges to be ...
7
If a President uses pardons too freely, and in what seems to be a corrupt manner, Congress could, in theory, impeach the President and remove him or her from office. This has never happened. How likely it might be in future is more a subject for the politics forum.
A pardon cannot immunize a person from an individual damage suit, or even from a later ...
6
From Clinton v. Jones 520 U.S. 681 (1997):
Deferral of this litigation until petitioner's Presidency ends is not constitutionally required.
[...]
The separation-of-powers doctrine does not require federal courts to stay all private actions against the President until he leaves office.
[...]
Nixon v Fitzgerald provides no support for an immunity for ...
6
All of them.
The "cabinet" refers to the heads of the executive departments listed at 5 USC 101. "Cabinet" isn't defined in the Constitution or legislation, but this interpretation is supported by the American Heritage Dictionary (cabinet), the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, and some discussion in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 US 1 (1976). All of these ...
6
Well, moral obligations are not laws, nor sometimes even moral obligations. Some laws are based on what some courts and legislatures think are moral obligations.
We think cannibals have a moral obligation not to eat people; cannibals think non-cannibals are fools for passing up a good BBQ. As for a leader's moral responsibility for millions of lives, we can ...
6
A president can be personally sued, and does not enjoy universal immunity while in office, see Clinton v. Jones, 520 US 681 – in that case, Clinton was represented by private counsel. There are differences between that case and the instant hypothetical, the most prominent being whether such statements might be shielded because of executive privilege. The ...
6
Technical violations can result in fine imposed by the Federal Election Commission. They provide this booklet, and these regulations are applicable. This regulation spells out how the fine is computed. The Dept. of Justice will handle any criminal accusations, and here is their handbook. To be criminally prosecutable, the act must be done knowingly and ...
6
§1 states what the design of the flag shall be (§2 mandates addition of stars when a new state is added). In essence, 4 USC 1-2 define what the flag is, and the rest of that chapter addresses what you can do with it. These are laws (passed by Congress), not rules or customs. That is, it's not a custom that the flag is 50 starts and 13 stripes, it's the law. ...
6
There are two possible scenarios: The Vice-Presidential President and a mass Write In.
In the first, if the elected President is removed from office after 2 years in office, than the Vice-President (and the entire eligible line of succession for that matter) would be eligible to run for two terms, giving the Former Veep the ability to serve for a total of ...
6
The New York Times reported on the veto which I think that the question is referring to on December 31, 1970.
The Congressional Research Service reported on the issue on March 30, 2001 and the pertinent part regarding the litigation over that pocket veto was as follows:
President Richard Nixon, on December 24, 1970, exercised a pocket veto
over the ...
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