Education

More Than Five Hundred Law Professors Write A Letter Favoring Impeachment: What Effects Will It Have?


Last week over 500 law professors and other legal scholars signed an open letter stating that Donald Trump engaged in impeachable conduct. The letter, which continues to gain signatures from faculty across the nation, was published by the the advocacy group Protect Democracy, after a December 4, 2019 hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

At that hearing, four law professors offered their opinions about the legal basis for the possible impeachment of the President. Democrats called three constitutional experts who argued that the President’s behavior involved impeachable offenses: Noah Feldman from Harvard, Pamela Karlan from Stanford, and Michael Gerhardt from the University of North Carolina. Republicans relied on Jonathan Turley, from George Washington University, to testify against impeachment, a feat of noteworthy pliability given that it contradicted Turley’s testimony in favor of the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

The scholars stated they did not reach their conclusion lightly but ultimately decided “there is overwhelming evidence that President Trump betrayed his oath of office by seeking to use presidential power to pressure a foreign government to help him distort an American election, for his personal and political benefit, at the direct expense of national security interests as determined by Congress. His conduct is precisely the type of threat to our democracy that the Founders feared when they included the remedy of impeachment in the Constitution.”

The letter cites several facts made public to date that amount to “overwhelming evidence” that what the President did is impeachable and ends with the statement that “if the House of Representatives impeached the President for the conduct described here and the Senate voted to remove him, they would be acting well within their constitutional powers.”

Although scholars often write open letters to weigh in on various matters of public interest and controversy, few issues have the importance of a potential impeachment of the President so the consequences of this letter are certain to be of interest to higher education leaders and the public at large. Here are four initial observations about what to expect.

First, letters of this type are an entirely appropriate activity for faculty engagement. Offering well-informed opinions about vital public matters in which scholars have particular expertise is to be expected, and should be encouraged. Academics have every right to express such opinions, and the public ultimately benefits from that right being exercised and protected.

Second, it is highly likely that a second letter claiming there is insufficient basis for the impeachment of Donald Trump will be published by well-qualified legal scholars who conclude there is inadequate evidence that the President engaged in impeachable behavior. That opinion also deserves consideration and ultimately serves the public good as well.

Third, the letter — and its strong support in favor of impeachment — is unlikely to change many opinions. It already is being dismissed as a partisan attack launched by typically left-leaning academics who have had nothing but enmity for Trump since the outset of his presidency. After the Judiciary Committee’s first impeachment hearing, Louie Gohmert (R-Tex) warned parents not to send their “babies” to Harvard’s or Stanford’s Law School. The chances that someone with Gohmert’s track record will have any influence on parents considering Harvard or Stanford for their children’s education is… how best to put this… vanishingly small.

Finally, university administrators will be put to the test over this letter, and they will need to be prepared to protect the right of their faculty to express what some people will criticize as biased opinions or unwarranted political advocacy. Particularly for leaders of public institutions in red states, they can expect to be called on the carpet by state legislators and asked why tax payers should be subsidizing partisan political statements by faculty.

The signatories of last week’s letter are spread across the nation, and many hail from states — like Missouri, Texas, Florida and Oklahoma — with Republican-majority legislatures that have shown no hesitancy in the past to try to punish their public universities for faculty views the legislators have disliked. Presidents and chancellors of those universities will almost surely be challenged about the views expressed by law professors in last week’s letter. They need to stand tall for those faculty and defend them against attack.



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