Word: berger
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ARTICLE two, section four of the United States Constitution says that "The president, vice president and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." It is Berger's contention that all of the constitutional causes for impeachment--treason, bribery and high crimes and misdemeanors--have a specific and limitable content, and that impeachment is appropriate only when an official is guilty of one of these constitutional offenses...
Many people have claimed that high crimes and misdemeanors can mean whatever Congress wants it to mean. Berger attacks this position in his book. He reasons that just as the framers of the Constitution did not want the president to possess excessive power over Congress, they did not want to give Congress too great a power over the executive. Consequently, the framers would not allow Congress the leeway to define the legal conditions for impeachment however it might please...
...Berger's search for the meaning of "high crimes and misdemeanors," he argues that the phrase actually means high crimes and high misdemeanors. The thrust of this argument is that Congress cannot impeach the president for just any indictable crimes, but only for crimes of "great offense." Using history as his guide, Berger comes to the conclusion that "high crimes and misdemeanors" was originally intended to include more than indictable criminal conduct. Berger contends that the term encompasses violations of the Constitution and "unfitness to hold public office...
...attempt to show that impeachment for "political" rather than "constitutional" reasons is both unwarranted and harmful, Berger examines the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Johnson was impeached because of a disagreement with Congress over Reconstruction policy rather than because he was guilty of unlawful conduct. Berger demonstrates that this resulted in an unfair trial, and he concludes that the ill-conceived impeachment of Johnson, which is described as a blatant misuse of congressional power, made impeachment an unpopular means of dealing with a president who is guilty of midconduct in office...
...Berger does not tell the story of the Johnson case to show that impeachment is too dangerous a tool to be used at all, but only to show that it is a tool to be used carefully. Throughout his book he maintains that the power to impeach is a necessary one, both to insure proper administration of office and to guarantee that the executive will not overstep his constitutional authority...