Word: bickel
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...Pollak, a Yale law professor, feels that Nixon should not be impeached unless there is evidence of his actual involvement in illegal activities such as the Watergate cover-up or the plumbers' burglary. In other words, the President must be shown to be guilty of a crime. Alexander Bickel, also a Yale law professor, rejects such issues as the impoundment of funds or the secret bombing of Cambodia as proper grounds. By those standards, he argues, "I don't think any of the 37 Presidents would have served out their terms...
That statement was issued in response to an argument made Wednesday by Alexander Bickel, a professor of Law at Yale, who argues that the prosecutorial function belongs solely to the executive branch...
...Bickel told newsmen, "Judicial power is not compatible with the exercise of the hiring, firing and for all I know, the supervising of prosecutors...
...BICKEL: I take the contrary view. I think the President is not indictable before impeachment because he's indispensable. His personal continuity and function in office are indispensable to the existence of the State. I think in the Vice President's case it's not that he's indispensable, it is that he is unavoidable...
...BICKEL: I also think it was an unwise action. The critical point is that the highest national interest lies in the speediest resolution of all this. The House may or may not turn out to have a function that coexists with that of the judiciary. There was nothing to be lost and everything to be gained in appointing a select committee and getting a process started that is bound to be lengthy...