Yarbrough pushes resolution in General Assembly
BY JOHN HUSTON
STAFF WRITER
Citing an obscure, 200-year-old rule, a joint resolution has been introduced in the Illinois General Assembly aimed at sparking a federal impeachment process against President George W. Bush.
The call for President Bush's impeachment has its roots in Maywood.
State Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-7th, introduced House Joint Resolution 125 in the Illinois Legislature last week.
By Monday, the resolution had three co-sponsors — state Reps. Sara Feigenholtz, D-12th; Eddie Washington, D-60th; and Cynthia Soto, D-4th — with “more to come,” Yarbrough said.
She said the general unhappiness with Bush's performance as president is widespread among state House Democrats.
“That's an understatement,” Yarbrough said. “This president has acted as an emperor, not as a leader of one of the three branches of government.”
The resolution baffled some experts because it is based on Jefferson's Manual — a set of rules published by Thomas Jefferson in 1801 which the U.S. House of Representatives uses as a supplement to its standing rules.
In it, Section 603 states that the House of Representatives has “various methods of setting an impeachment in motion,” including “by charges transmitted from the legislature of a State.”
If the joint resolution passes both branches of the General Assembly, opinions differ on what would come next.
Yarbrough said her interpretation of Jefferson's Manual is that the U.S. House “would have to take up the issue if we were to pass it.”
Jefferson's intent
“People always talk about our founders and what their intent was,” she said.
“With this, Jefferson's intent was pretty clear. He wanted to make sure there were checks and balances, and that there was this trap door.”
Jon Brandt, spokesman for the Committee on U.S. House Administration, said it is the duty of the House parliamentarian to interpret Jefferson's Manual.
“That would be the (interpretation) that really counts,” he said.
Brandt said the House parliamentarian has reviewed the matter.
“You do not start an impeachment process by introducing a resolution,” Brandt said.
If Yarbrough's joint resolution passes and is sent to the U.S. House, “it would be considered a communication from whatever governmental agency adopted it” and given to the Judiciary Committee, he added.
“It would not trigger any formal proceedings,” Brandt said.
Bob Bennett, professor of constitutional law at Northwestern University School of Law, said Yarbrough's resolution is unusual, if not historically unique.
“I doubt there are seven people in the United States who have thought of the applicability of Jefferson's Manual,” Bennett said.
Uncharted territory
“This is uncharted territory,” he continued.
“There's nothing in the Constitution that gives state legislatures any particular standing with regards to starting an impeachment process.”
Whether or not Jefferson's Manual has any authority is up to debate.
“I don't know if the Congress has ever passed some resolution that states, 'We will be bound by the Jefferson Manual of Procedure,' ” Bennett said. “If it had been done, it would be embarrassing, I suppose, to ignore it.”
Yarbrough's resolution lists five charges against President Bush as reasons for impeachment: Violating provisions of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authorizing spying on American citizens, violating the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions, holding American and foreign citizens as prisoners of war without charge or trial, manipulating intelligence for the purpose of initiating the Iraq war, and leaking classified national secrets to further a political agenda.
State lawmakers, already in overtime session, are scheduled through next week.
“It gives me enough time to work the bill,” Yarbrough said.
A similar joint resolution was submitted Friday in the California Assembly and several town-hall meetings in Vermont have approved similar measures invoking Jefferson's Manual.
“If the blues will stand up, boy, that'd be great,” Yarbrough said.
and another article here
