Laurence Tribe Quotes

Impeachment is not an extension of ordinary political debate; rather, it is reserved for conduct that threatens the very terrain on which such debates occur.

When we think about “high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” we must ask: Will we survive this presidency, and, if we do, what kind of nation will we have become?

(1) all presidents use power in controversial ways; (2) it is improper to impeach based on mere partisan disagreement; and (3) there are many kinds of misconduct that can justify impeachment.

We should] treat as impeachable those offenses, and only those, that a reasonable man might anticipate would be thought abusive and wrong, without references to partisan politics or differences of opinion on policy.

His anxiety melted away, and he envied Patricia for having such charming friends. If this had been a gathering of Laurence’s tribe, by now someone would already have tried to prove they were the supreme expert on some topic. There would have been dick-measuring. Instead, these people just seemed to accept one another and feed each other tacos.

Sheldon Adelson, for example, gave more than $53 million to Super PACs, but all eight of the candidates he supported lost.59 Karl Rove, a strategic mastermind who won fame advising George W. Bush, oversaw groups that spent $175 million and still lost twenty-one out of thirty elections.

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, by Laurence Gonzales.

Vespucci’s Indians were most likely representatives of the vast network of Guaraní tribes.

Apparently, a tribe of Fuegian Indians had used the place to bury their dead in warm weather, and then vanished

Fearful of stumbling across warlike tribes that might be prowling in the forest,

sailed along its coast, and spotted a tribe that seemed friendly, at least from a distance. In good spirits,

White Supremacists oppose abortion because they fear it’ll reduce the number of white infants and thus contribute to what they fear as non-white ‘replacement,’ ” tweeted Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe in 2019. “Never underestimate the way these issues and agendas are linked. This turns ‘intersectionality’ on its head,” Tribe added. In a 2020 GQ article titled “The Anti-Abortion Movement Was Always Built on Lies,” journalist Laura Bassett advanced the incoherent thesis that Republicans before Ronald Reagan were pro-abortion because they were racist and that Republicans after Reagan became pro-life also because they were racist.33

fake drug named Impeachara: Do you find yourself feeling depressed? Hopeless? Having trouble sleeping? Struggling with frequent panic attacks? Irritability? Constant arguments with family? Friends? Or even friends of friends on Facebook? Yelling at your phone or computer screen? And that constant urge to pull out your hair… You may be suffering from T.I.A.D., “Trump Induced Anxiety Disorder.” Impeachara may help… Impeachara works on your brain’s neurotransmitters and optical receptors convincing you that Donald Trump has already been impeached. Not all patients have the same reactions. Results may vary. Side effects may include elation, the ability to focus on work and family again, and reconnecting with people you called ignorant fuckfaces on social media.69

Impeachment is not just another form of political combat; it’s an emergency measure meant to save the democratic foundation on which all other politics unfold.

Put differently: (1) Is removal permissible, (2) Is removal likely to succeed, and (3) Is removal worth the price the nation will pay?

If we don’t allow presidential impeachment, warned Benjamin Franklin, then the only recourse for abuse of power will be assassination.

Without an impeachment process, presidents could obtain office corruptly and then enjoy the poisonous fruit of their own electoral treachery. Democracy itself might be destroyed.

Many Constitutional Convention delegates also worried that presidents might be tempted to accept foreign bribes and conspire with enemy powers.

The vast majority of presidential abuses are properly addressed through normal legal and political checks.

American democracy deals with unpopular or unwise presidents by checking them, balancing them, and running out the clock on their four-year term.

Impeachment should occur when a president’s prior misdeeds are so awful in their own right, and so disturbing a signal of future conduct, that allowing the president to remain in office poses a clear danger of grave harm to the constitutional order.

the public has grasped that the Constitution demands wrongdoing of a very high order to justify impeachment

in the improbable event that the president attempts to pardon himself for committing federal crimes (which likely would be unlawful), he can’t thereby preclude his own impeachment.

high Crimes and Misdemeanors” was understood as limited to serious misconduct that inflicted injury on the state itself.

use of the word high is revealing. In Britain, high treason involved a crime against the Crown—as distinguished from petit treason, the betrayal of a superior by a subordinate. The Framers knew this and deliberately chose to incorporate the word high as a limitation on impeachable offenses.

As the Framers knew, democracy can fall to charismatic demagogues, would-be monarchs, self-interested kleptocrats, sophisticated criminals, and high-functioning morons.

The Constitution is well worth fighting for.