Today in Supreme Court History: February 21, 1868

2/21/1868: President Johnson orders Secretary of War Edwin Stanton removed from office. In Myers v. U.S. (1926), the Supreme Court found that Johnson's actions were lawful.

President Andrew Johnson

Comments

[Cal Cetín]

"the Supreme Court found that Johnson's actions were lawful"

Numero uno, in an impeachment case the Senate has the last word, not the Supreme Court.

Numero two-o, there was a statutory as well as a constitutional dispute in Johnson's case: Did the Tenure of Office Act actually protect Cabinet officers like Stanton who had been appointed under Lincoln?

[Ridgeway]

Regarding numero uno, I agree that impeachment is as much (if not more) a political process as a legal process.

However, if an impeachee (?) can show that the law he is accused of violating is manifestly unconstitutional, one would hope that this would help him in the court of public opinion. And unlike in a court of law (at least ideally), the court of public opinion is very important in the context of a Senate impeachment trial.

[Cal Cetín]

I would call it a legal process in which the judges are much more open about their politics than in many other judicial proceedings.

I would think the 2/3 requirement is set so that the politics of a single faction won't be enough to convict - Senators in different factions would have to be convinced. So unless the Senate is dominated overwhelmingly by one party (eg, Johnson trial), then the offense will have to be sufficiently evident, and sufficiently bad, to appall Senators across partisan lines.

[AtR]

Anyone know why comments are off on some of the blog articles (e.g., Josh's announcement of his work on Jacobson)?

[David Nieporent]

I'd say embarrassment, but Prof. Blackman has both natural and acquired immunity to that.

I suspect software glitch.