Impeachment, Attainder, and a True Constitutional Crisis: Lessons from the Strafford Trial Craig S
REVIEW Impeachment, Attainder, and a True Constitutional Crisis: Lessons from the Strafford Trial Craig S. Lernert Proceedingsin the Opening Session of the Long Parliament:House of Commons and the Strafford Trial (Volume 3:22 March-17 April 1641). Maija Jansson, ed. University of Rochester Press, 2001. Pp xxxviii, 608. In the months that preceded President Clinton's impeachment trial, observers in the media breathlessly reported the so-called "death struggle" between the President and Kenneth Starr.' Distinguished academic commentators, such as Ronald Dworkin and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., were equally overheated in their rhetoric, predicting that the President's impeachment would shred the American constitu- tional fabric.' Of course, Clinton was impeached, with no discernible unraveling of the regime. The immediate political stakes were high, to be sure, and both sides fought with energy-as a minor participant in the struggle, I can attest to that.3 But no lives, and very few persons' liberty, were ever in jeopardy and, contra Dworkin and Schlesinger, the U.S. Constitution was safe throughout the ordeal. If this all seems obvious to many now,4 I mention it only to note the disproportion be- t Assistant Professor, George Mason University School of Law. The author thanks Mi- chael Abramowicz, Frank Buckley, Philip Hamburger, Peter Hansen, Renee Lettow Lerner, Nel- son Lund, and Daniel Polsby. I See, for example, Jill Abramson, Baby Boomers; and There the Likeness Ceases, NY Times All (Feb 16,1998). 2 See The Committee for Censure, Not Impeachment, An Appeal to the US. Congressand the Public,NY Times A21 (Oct 7,1998) (including Dworkin and Schlesinger, Jr.
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