To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment Hardcover – May 15, 2018

The "Master's Voice" is the scholarly voice of Harvard Law School professor Laurence H. Tribe. Professor Tribe is one of the foremost - if not foremost - authorities on U.S. constitutional law. Professor Tribe's scholarly credentials regarding U.S. constitutional law are extremely impressive and highly authoritative.Professor Tribe's assessment of the scholarly caliber of Joshua Matz, co-author of TO END A PRESIDENCY, is of the highest order.This extremely timely book addresses the current impeachment crisis that poses the potentially greatest threat to the continued existence of the United States.Coincidentally, for the two year duration of the Watergate cover-up, I was attending law school, Professor Tribe's treatise entitled AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW is the reference work I utilized for my study of my constitutional law course.Two U.S. Presidents have ever been impeached, but none convicted by the Senate. President Nixon was nearly impeached, but resigned before impeachment occurred. Therefore, the limited U. S. experience with impeachment is very restricted.The present Trump impeachment crisis is continuously revealing an expanding crop of novel legal issues that need to be addressed.The U.S. Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times. It is possible for the U.S. Constitution to be further amended to address additional impeachment issues that are found to be pressing.The text of TO END A PRESIDENCY is very lucid - quite an achievement, considering its complex subject matter about this extremely important topic, which requires the visionary insight of a constitutional scholar like Professor Tribe.TO END A PRESIDENCY has a special meaning for me because this book includes discussions of President Nixon's Watergate scandal. During the two year length of the Watergate scandal, there was saturation news coverage, in THE WASHINGTON POST news articles and editorials and in TV news of the daily events of the daily events related to the Watergate scandal.The two year duration of the Watergate scandal was necessary for U.S. citizens to become familiar with the concept of actually impeaching a U.S. President. That two year time frame should be borne in mind when estimating the amount of time is likely to be needed to address our current constitutional crisis.Judging from the two year time frame of the Watergate scandal, in our current constitutional crisis, as of August 21, 2018, is comparable to the starting kick at the opening of the first quarter of a four quarter game, which is likely to go into overtime.POSTSCRIPT:Customers who desire an impression of Professor Tribe's calm, soft-spoken, unflappable demeanor and style, may view a few minutes of Professor Tribe's presentation, posted on YouTube, under the caption "WASHINGTON JOURNAL: C-SPAN,; To End a Presidency - Trump Impeachment" (56 min - incl. phone-in comments by listeners),

This is a balanced approach to the entire subject of impeachment that is especially important in this Age of Trump.Tribe and Matz do not lay out a policy statement rather they lay out a historical, legally grounded approach to Impeachment as a process, providing a guide to the questions the voter as well as the members of Congress needs to be asking themself at this critical juncture.Of particular importance they note that the power to impeach does not equate with the duty to impeach, that any impeachment is case sensitive and must take account of the entire process and the ramifications for the entire polity.They place this power within the context of the current hyper partisan political environment and give he reader some structure within which to place their own thoughts and to render some judgment on the evidence that has been produced by an investigation, its chances of reaching a successful outcome in a Senate trial and the possible consequences of failure to convict and remove.These are critical questions in the current political environment and will remain so as long as Donald Trump is President and will undoubtedly affect the Presidents who succeed him. This is particularly important given the fact that this book was written before the results of the Mueller Investigation were known and before the now infamous July 25 call with the Ukrainian President took place.

An excellent and thought-provoking study of the impeachment power. It really impresses on you how much impeachment was intended to be rare and extraordinary by design. In a way, it's somewhat comforting. Even though I would like nothing more than to see our current president fired, after reading this I reached the conclusion if he's never impeached that doesn't necessarily mean that our democracy is broken, it may just be because it's such an extraordinarily heavy lift to impeach a president that it may be practically impossible. Really, the framers intended for our primary remedy to be to vote a bad president out in the next election (which is why they chose 4 year terms, a radically short interval for power in the days this was all designed). Of course it's essential that the impeachment remedy exist and be theoretically available, but the U.S. may actually never see a president removed this way. It teaches us that the most important thing to do in the face of a bad president is to call out his bad acts repeatedly, and vote against him next time. That means that a good number of people are already doing what we're supposed to do.

After finishing this book, I am better prepared to understand the impeachment process we are witnessing right now. It carefully lays out the historical context, process and implications of impeachment. This quote validated the time and energy I put into reading this book: “But as Andrew Shepard warned in The American President (an Aaron Sorkin film), America ain’t easy. America is advanced citizenship.” I am now closer to applying for advanced citizenship. Read this book so you can too.

This book clearly explains the history of impeachment from before the Constitution was written to present times. It goes into depth, in a way that is understandable to the reader, on what constitutes “high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” whether a crime must have been committed, what events and conditions make an impeachment likely to be successful, and how and when the 25th Amendment could be used instead. It ends with a serious discussion of current political realities and their likely impact on possible impeachment’s today.

"To End a Presidency" by Joshua Matz and Laurence Tribe offers insight into the history of the impeachment process and why it will be a challenge to convict an impeached President. Furthermore, this book was so relevant -- because of the recent impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

A serious subject has been made quite easily understood. Clear and witty. Bravo!!!

This is an interesting book that I’ve learned lots from. It clearly lays out the impeachment process and links it back to the intentions of the founding fathers. It also talks about impeachment in the modern age and in light of the current bi-partisan US politics.On the downside, it is written in a dull academic style that can be hard to take in. The prose should have been a lot more focussed and punchier. Not also drifts into the personal political views of the authors a bit as opposed to being non biased.But all in all, a good book for those with an interest in US politics.