Impeachment: A Handbook

by Charles L. Black Jr., Philip Bobbitt (Revised by), Akhil Reed Amar

Overview

Originally published at the height of the Watergate crisis, Charles Black’s classic Impeachment: A Handbook has long been the premier guide to the subject of presidential impeachment. Now thoroughly updated with new chapters by Philip Bobbitt, it remains essential reading for every concerned citizen.
 
Praise for Impeachment:
 
“To understand impeachment, read this book. It shows how the rule of law limits power, even of the most powerful, and reminds us that the impact of the law on our lives ultimately depends on the conscience of the individual American.”—Bill Bradley, former United States senator
 
“The most important book ever written on presidential impeachment.”—Lawfare
 
“A model of how so serious an act of state should be approached.”—Wall Street Journal
 
“A citizen’s guide to impeachment. . . . Elegantly written, lucid, intelligent, and comprehensive.”—New York Times Book Review
 
“The finest text on the subject I have ever read.”—Ben Wittes
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300238266
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	09/18/2018
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.48(d)

About the Author

Charles L. Black, Jr. (1915–2001), was Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Philip Bobbitt is the Herbert Wechsler Professor of Federal Jurisprudence at Columbia Law School.

Table of Contents

Preface to the New Edition xi

Preface xv

Part I Charles L. Black, Jr.

1 Introduction 3

2 The Procedures 7

General 7

The Part of the House of Representatives 8

The Part of the Senate 11

Some Special Procedural Points 15

Is Impeachment, with Trial Thereon, a "Criminal Proceeding"? 15

Should Hearings Be Public? 19

Is There Any "Presidential Privilege" in Impeachment Proceedings? 20

The Final Responsibility of Congress 22

The Place of Lawyers 23

3 The Impeachable Offense 24

"Treason" 24

"Bribery" 25

"Other high Crimes and Misdemeanors," 26

The Relation between Impeachable Offenses and Ordinary Crimes 30

An Affirmative Approach to the Meaning of "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" 33

Application to Particular Problems 37

Bribery 37

Income-Tax Fraud 37

Use of Tax System to Harass Opponents 38

Impoundment of Appropriated Funds for the Purpose of Destroying Authorized Programs 38

Unauthorized Warlike Operations 39

Improper Campaign Tactics 40

Obstruction of Justice 41

Some Final Considerations 42

The President's Responsibility for Acts of His Subordinates 42

Good-Faith Belief in the Rightness of an Act 43

Substantiality 43

A Note on History 44

4 Impeachment and the Courts 47

Is There to Be Judicial Review of the Senate's Verdict on Impeachment? 47

May Congress Use the Federal Courts to Assist in Impeachment Investigations? 55

5 Short of Impeachment 57

Part II Philip Bobbitt

6 Recent Precedents 65

Nixon and Watergate 67

Reagan and Iran-Contra 70

Clinton and Gingrich 75

Bush and the Iraq War 83

Obama and Executive Discretion 86

Before and After 89

7 Seven Fallacies 95

Fallacy 1: Impeachment Is a Political Question, Not a Legal One 99

Fallacy 2: The Grounds for Impeachment Are Whatever the House Determines Them to Be 103

Fallacy 3: A Criminal Act by the President Is an Essential Predicate to His Impeachment 107

Fallacy 4: Any Serious Criminal Act by the President Is Grounds for His Impeachment 109

Fallacy 5: Congress Cannot Remove a President for Exercising Authorities That Are Constitutionally Committed to His Discretion 113

Fallacy 6: Acts Authorized by Congress Cannot Provide a Predicate for the Impeachment of the President Who Carries Out These Acts 116

Fallacy 7: What Constitutes a "high Crime or Misdemeanor" Does Not Vary with the Office of the Person Being Impeached 118

8 Particular Problems 121

Burglary 122

Bots 125

Obstruction 129

Pardons 133

Incitement 137

Intimidation 137

Emoluments 139

Incapacitation: The Twenty-Fifth Amendment 141

9 Decision according to Law 145

Appendix 151

Bibliography 155

Acknowledgments 161

Index 163

Editorial Reviews

Bobbitt’s book engages deeply on what constitutes ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’ It concludes that ‘careful, patient inquiry’ must denote a pattern of ‘wanton constitutional dereliction’ and establish acts of misconduct that badly undermine the very ‘legitimacy’ of the government and ‘seriously threaten the order of political society.’”—Greg Sargent, Washington Post

“Yale University Press [has] produced a new edition of Charles Black’s Impeachment: A Handbook, with substantial new scholarship added by Philip Bobbitt. It is Bobbitt's mission to reclaim for impeachment the status of a legal process, in which constitutional interpretation is guided by careful and rigorously argued attention to text, history, structure, doctrine, prudence and what he calls ‘ethos’—a concern with the ‘primacy of the rule of law.’ His presentation is powerful and convincing.”—Bob Bauer, Lawfare blog

“Black’s work — now Black and Bobbitt’s — continues to set the standard for responsible study of a subject that is easy and advantageous to misunderstand. This is a book that performs its message, exercising as well as urging common sense and educated restraint.”—Jane Chong, Los Angeles Review of Books

“The original edition arrived as the crisis of Nixon’s presidency was coming to a head. It was addressed not to scholars but to ‘the citizen.’ Its virtue, Bobbitt explains in his introduction to the new edition, was that it didn’t instruct readers ‘what to think’ about the specific impeachment-related questions that were swirling around Washington, but rather ‘how to think’: how to derive a legal answer ‘from the text, history, structure, doctrine, practicality, and ethos of the Constitution.’ ”—Linda Greenhouse, New York Review of Books

“To understand impeachment, read Black & Bobbitt. They show how the rule of law limits power, even of the most powerful, and remind us that the impact of the law on our lives ultimately depends on the conscience of individual members of Congress serving as jurors or judges.”—Bill Bradley, former United States Senator

"Charles Black’s book on impeachment was an instant classic when it was first published in 1974, and it is even more timely today now that Philip Bobbitt has trenchantly brought it up to date.”—Michael Beschloss, author of Presidents of War  

“In 1974, a law professor named Charles L. Black published an extraordinary volume entitled, Impeachment: A Handbook. It is the finest text on the subject I have ever read.”—Ben Wittes

From the Publisher

“Yale University Press [has] produced a new edition of Charles Black’s Impeachment: A Handbook, with substantial new scholarship added by Philip Bobbitt. It is Bobbitt's mission to reclaim for impeachment the status of a legal process, in which constitutional interpretation is guided by careful and rigorously argued attention to text, history, structure, doctrine, prudence and what he calls ‘ethos’—a concern with the ‘primacy of the rule of law.’ His presentation is powerful and convincing.”—Bob Bauer, Lawfare blog

Lawfare blog - Bob Bauer

“In 1974, a law professor named Charles L. Black published an extraordinary volume entitled, Impeachment: A Handbook. It is the finest text on the subject I have ever read.”—Ben Wittes

Ben Wittes

“To understand impeachment, read Black & Bobbitt. They show how the rule of law limits power, even of the most powerful, and remind us that the impact of the law on our lives ultimately depends on the conscience of individual members of Congress serving as jurors or judges.”—Bill Bradley, former United States Senator

Bill Bradley

"Charles Black’s book on impeachment was an instant classic when it was first published in 1974, and it is even more timely today now that Philip Bobbitt has trenchantly brought it up to date.”—Michael Beschloss, author of Presidents of War  

Michael Beschloss

. . .Elegantly written, lucid, intelligent, and comprehensive.

New York Times Book Review

The measure of this book's achievement is that it tells the reader not what to think but what to think about.

Time

Black's survey is a dispassionate, invaluable beam of light....This everyman's guide to impeachment outlines the process leading to the removal of a president by congress, places it in historical perspective, [and] discusses the conundrums that spring from it.... It provides a major contribution to sanity in our government.

Newsweek

. . .Elegantly written, lucid, intelligent, and comprehensive.

NY Times Book Review