Impeachment: A Citizen’s Guide

Constitutional-law scholar Sunstein (#Republic) is well positioned to provide this balanced and timely overview of the role of impeachment in American democracy. During the Clinton impeachment proceedings, he was asked by Congress to testify as to the meaning of the Constitution’s reference to “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Sunstein’s account of this and other relevant personal experiences make his well-informed insights easy for the nonspecialist to digest. He reveals that for both Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin, having the ability to impeach the president was essential to establishing governments with the accountability lacking in monarchies. Sunstein goes over the relevant history, including the impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, and discusses the related concept of removing a president for incapacity under the 25th Amendment (as a member of the Reagan Justice Department, he was called on for an expert opinion after the 1981 assassination attempt). The resulting book is an essential guide to understanding impeachment’s function within the “constitutional system as a whole” and a persuasive argument that the impeachment clause places “the fate of the republic” in the hands of its citizenry. (Nov.)