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Can Impeachment be Decided by Summary Judgment?
I’m not destroying the lede when I confess we don’t know.
It’s a serious and important question because placing a bet on the answer may be the only way to get the impeachment done before the election.
Why is finishing before the election important?
Suppose the Senate has to vote yes or no on conviction in the middle of the second term election campaign. Does anyone seriously believe we have a hundred souls serving in the Senate who can leave the dipstick election polling out of the decision?
Suppose Donald John Trump is once more able to parlay a popular vote loss into an Electoral College victory? Then the impeachment finishes and he is convicted…based on something he did in the first term?
There is a partial answer in that he can be disqualified from holding office in the future by a simple majority in a vote separate from the vote on conviction. However, it would not be completely irrational to vote to convict but not to disqualify. Should a majority of the Senate take that position, a newly impeached Donald Trump could then get sworn in for a second term.
Suppose he loses the election in both the vote and the Electoral College and then he gets convicted in the impeachment. I don’t think it’s any…
