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Reply #44: Stormy weather has a chilling effect on democracy, but it's not [View All]

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jobycom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-18-05 09:13 PM
Response to Reply #43
44. Stormy weather has a chilling effect on democracy, but it's not
impeachable.

I know it's a bad crime, but being a bad crime doesn't make it a crime against the state. The Constitution as it was passed was even more specific, using the phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors against the United States." The style committee dropped the last part because it was repetitive. "High" crimes could only be crimes against the state.

Here, maybe this will help. From Findlaw.com:

"But why did the Founders specify high crimes and misdemeanors? Professor Joseph Isenbergh's research notes the answers can be found in the treatises of Coke and Blackstone. These texts were widely read and followed by judges and lawyers of the period and recognized as authoritative sources by the Framers of the Constitution. For example, Blackstone's definition of treason was adopted verbatim in Article III, Section 3: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.

Blackstone explained that "high crimes" were criminal acts committed "against the king and government." Coke's treatise distinguishes "high treason" as a crime against the "royall majesty," as compared to "petit treason," a crime against "subjects and inferiors." A "high crime" was a crime against the sovereign, as opposed to garden variety crime which did not strike at the institutions of government or the life of the state.

In the first version of Article II, Section 4 adopted by the Constitutional Convention of 1787 the Founders specified "high crimes and misdemeanors against the State." The last three words were changed to "against the United States" and were later deleted in their entirety by the Committee on Style, which was charged with editing, but not altering the meaning of, the Constitution."
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