In the case Nixon v. USA, Nixon was not President. He was a judge. It is odd that America has impeached one Nixon, and nearly impeached another Nixon.
In the case Nixon v. USA, the Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed it had absolutely no say in impeachments. There was no way to appeal impeachments to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court will still be the Supreme Court, so Nixon v. USA still applies. There is only one body that can give you a decision on impeachment trials, and that is the Senate.
The Constitution does not say who can not be impeached, so you might not get the decision you want.
Judge Nixon certainly felt so. He had a better case, because the Senate was doing the trial very different than the Founding Fathers thought it should be done.
Also when the Senate votes to expel a member, the Supreme Court has no say. And of course, the Supreme Court has no say in the rules of the Senate or how they are applied.
The Senate has only convicted people who are not President. All the Presidents have been acquitted.
They would need to first convince the House to impeach me, and then would have to get two-thirds of the votes in the Senate to convict me. That is a high bar to achieve for someone who has done nothing.
And if they did convict me, it would accomplish little.
But yes, if you can convince Congress to impeach and convict me, I am stuck with that. There is no appeal.
If you can convince a court to convict me of a crime that I did not commit, and the Supreme Court to agree, there is no appeal for me there either.
Phantasmal (01-19-2021)
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