Congress Can Remove Donald Trump From Office Without Impeaching Him

[Kaotic]

We can only hope...

http://time.com/4692507/congress-remove-donald-trump-impeachment/

Presidential psychology is quickly becoming a bipartisan issue. Recently, Senator Al Franken said that he and several of his GOP colleagues shared the opinion that President Donald Trump is “not right mentally.” Shortly thereafter, 35 mental health professionals — psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers — took to the pages of the New York Times to register their own concerns that the President was demonstrating “grave emotional instability.”
These controversial armchair diagnoses are powerless on their own. But what if there was something that Senator Franken and his concerned colleagues could actually do? Constitutionally speaking, there might be.

While theoretically possible, it is highly unlikely that the Vice President and the Cabinet would unite to remove the President absent a clear incapacitation along the lines President Woodrow Wilson experienced after a stroke. Even if there was a bipartisan consensus that he was unfit to serve, the President would have broad authority to remove his Cabinet before it could take any action.

But there is another provision in the Amendment that has received much less popular attention — one that could allow Congress to play a role in removing the President. And no, it isn’t impeachment. Instead, a little-known provision in Section 4 empowers Congress to form its own body to evaluate the President’s fitness for office, eliminating the need for the Cabinet’s involvement in the process (emphasis ours):

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

But what constitutional constraints are put on this power? Remarkably, there aren’t any. The framers of the 25th Amendment left the provision purposely vague, allowing Congress flexibility to decide on its specifics at a later date. It should come as no surprise to those who bemoan Congress’s frequent inactivity to find out that in the 50 years since the Amendment passed, it has never made such a decision.

[smirkymonkey]

1. K&R

Oh please yes! Somebody rid of us this unending nightmare.

[exboyfil]

2. Continue reading the amendment

Trump merely needs to petition to return to office. Within about a month a vote has to occur in the House and Senate, and 2/3rds of each body must confirm his inability to continue in office. He can then immediately reapply each time the House and Senate votes him down.

It is like the Walking Dead version of impeachment. Impeachment is easier (only need a majority in the House). Actually the credible threat of impeachment would be sufficient for most rational individuals.

[unblock]

3. but if the president challenges it, it requires 2/3rd of *each* house to override.

so as a practical matter, removal pursuant to impeachment, which requires the same 2/3rd of the senate but only a simply majority in the house, is actually the easier route.

[FBaggins]

4. No... they can't

The authors should ask for their money back from Yale... they didn't get what they paid for.

The "or of such other body as Congress may by law provide" means that it doesn't have to be the VP and cabinet. Congress could theoretically create a panel of doctors to replace the role of the cabinet... BUT:

1 - The VP is still involved - so Pence would have to go along.
2 - (More importantly)... Congress must provide for this "by law"... and Presidents have to sign laws unless their veto is overridden - which requires the same 2/3 vote as impeachment (only this time it's the Senate and the House).

...and then he's only gone for a short time before another supermajority vote is needed to overcome his objection.

Impeachment is much easier.