Also, note that the constitution says “high crimes”, not “crimes”. And “high crimes” does not mean “really bad crimes”, but means the type of crime that, generally, only an government official can commit because he or she is in a position of authority.
Add in that Melania gets to slap him in public, just once, and I’m in.
Hmm. Does that mean you figure the phrase includes ‘high misdemeanors’? Or do you figure it refers to ‘high crimes’, and — on an unrelated note — to ‘misdemeanors’?
Funny you should ask, because I was thinking about that as I posted. I honestly don’t know, but if I were to offer my opinion I would say yes. Mostly because the phrase “high misdemeanors” was also historically used in a similar context (emphasis added):
That link’s go-to example of a high misdemeanor: “Where a Jew advises the Crown on the appointment to offices of the Churches of England, Ireland and Scotland”.
Can’t say I saw that coming.
I know I’m taking the joke seriously, but it’s worth noting that impeachment can only carry two penalties:
The phrase originated centuries ago. If we were writing it for today’s audience, we might phrase it differently, like: abuse of power or abuse of office.
I looked at the references and it appears that law, and the similar one applying to Catholics, come from the Relief Acts which allowed Catholics (in 1829) and Jews (in 1858) to be Members of Parliament. I suppose it made sense at the time that the laws allowing for non-Anglican MPs should also exclude them from being involved in church governance.
List of pardons thru Obama: Presidential Pardon Records
Obama was was relatively low on pardons but had a great number of clemencies: How Trump compares with past presidents on pardons and commutations | Pew Research Center
Trump pardons to date (with a dose of politics): https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/31/politics/trump-pardons-political-friends/index.html
The pardon power, to me, has always come off as skeevy regardless of who was president. They seem to pardon cronies and the like. That said, looking at your list, the number of pardons is pretty high.
So, is it we only read about the skeevy ones and they are actually (mostly) pardoning people where a miscarriage of justice seemed to occur?