Impeachment Articles Must Be Challenged in Court

[austingirl]

The latest reporting I've seen is that the Senate will take up President Trump's impeachment trial this week.  What's wrong with that, you ask?  I've already said what's wrong: the Schiff-Nadler Star Chamber violated President Trump's Fifth Amendment rights to procedural due process, rendering the resulting impeachment articles null and void as "poisoned fruit."  The GOP leadership should do what the Founders would have done: challenge the legal legitimacy of the impeachment articles.  The logic blueprint I will present below — Mr. Jefferson knew logic — will help make the case in court.
As we know, protecting the rights of the accused is of fundamental importance in a just legal system and is a key motivation behind the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which asserts that "[no person shall] be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law."  The Supreme Court has interpreted due process broadly to include:

procedural due process rights,

substantive due process rights, and

prohibition against vague laws

as the vehicle for the incorporation of the Bill of Rights.

Of concern here are only procedural due process rights (PDPRs), which include:

An unbiased tribunal.

Notice of the proposed action and the grounds asserted for it.

The opportunity to present reasons for the proposed action not to be taken.

The right to present evidence, including the right to call witnesses.

The right to know the opposing evidence.

The right to cross-examine adverse witnesses.

A decision based only on the evidence presented.

Opportunity to be represented by counsel.

A requirement that the tribunal prepare a record of the evidence presented.

A requirement that the tribunal prepare written findings of fact and the reasons for its decision.

More at link:

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/01/impeachment_articles_must_be_challenged_in_court.html

[EdinVA]

The question is, is impeachment a political process or criminal?
Have heard lost of banter but no answer.
If it is a political process, then the criminal rules do not seem to apply....
Confused..

[Maj. Bill Martin]

The latest reporting I've seen is that the Senate will take up President Trump's impeachment trial this week.  What's wrong with that, you ask?  I've already said what's wrong: the Schiff-Nadler Star Chamber violated President Trump's Fifth Amendment rights to procedural due process, rendering the resulting impeachment articles null and void as "poisoned fruit."  The GOP leadership should do what the Founders would have done: challenge the legal legitimacy of the impeachment articles.  The logic blueprint I will present below — Mr. Jefferson knew logic — will help make the case in court.
As we know, protecting the rights of the accused is of fundamental importance in a just legal system and is a key motivation behind the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which asserts that "[no person shall] be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law."  The Supreme Court has interpreted due process broadly to include:

procedural due process rights,

substantive due process rights, and

prohibition against vague laws

as the vehicle for the incorporation of the Bill of Rights.

Of concern here are only procedural due process rights (PDPRs), which include:

An unbiased tribunal.

Notice of the proposed action and the grounds asserted for it.

The opportunity to present reasons for the proposed action not to be taken.

The right to present evidence, including the right to call witnesses.

The right to know the opposing evidence.

The right to cross-examine adverse witnesses.

A decision based only on the evidence presented.

Opportunity to be represented by counsel.

A requirement that the tribunal prepare a record of the evidence presented.

A requirement that the tribunal prepare written findings of fact and the reasons for its decision.

More at link:

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/01/impeachment_articles_must_be_challenged_in_court.html

The Fifth Amendment applies to criminal actions only, and impeachment is not a criminal trial.  It is literally impossible for an impeachment to violate the Fifth Amendment.  Now, it's certainly possible for the Senate to say there are general principles -- moral rather than legal -- that should be followed, and that the House process was flawed in a way that made it unreliable.  I'd say that the underlying rationale behind the Sixth Amendment's speedy trial clause -- that people shouldn't have to endure indefinitely an accusation of illegal conduct for which they are never given the opportunity to clear their name -- would apply to never forwarding the articles of impeachment.  That doesn't mean that the failure to do so actually violates the Sixth Amendment, though.  It's just that in coming up with its own rules, the Senate is free to adopt broad principle present elsewhere in the law.

[austingirl]

The Fifth Amendment applies to criminal actions only, and impeachment is not a criminal trial.  It is literally impossible for an impeachment to violate the Fifth Amendment.  Now, it's certainly possible for the Senate to say there are general principles -- moral rather than legal -- that should be followed, and that the House process was flawed in a way that made it unreliable.  I'd say that the underlying rationale behind the Sixth Amendment's speedy trial clause -- that people shouldn't have to endure indefinitely an accusation of illegal conduct for which they are never given the opportunity to clear their name -- would apply to never forwarding the articles of impeachment.  That doesn't mean that the failure to do so actually violates the Sixth Amendment, though.  It's just that in coming up with its own rules, the Senate is free to adopt broad principle present elsewhere in the law.

Yet this shampeachment violates morality and ethical principles. It shouldn't stand. The damage done to the Constitution and Presidency is untenable.