Impeachment proceedings are in full swing. Democrats in the House of Representatives are currently looking to catch President Trump in wrongdoing related to his dealings with Ukraine. There is nothing wrong with this, per se, as the House has the Constitutional right to investigate and hold impeachment inquiries. However, one of the most concerning things surrounding these hearings is the “presumption of guilt” attitude by opponents of the President.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi put on a perfect display of this thinking during a recent press conference where she said, “And if the President has something that is exculpatory, Mr. President, that means you have something that shows your innocence, then he should make that known and that’s part of the inquiry. And so far, we haven’t seen that, but we welcome it.” Lest one thinks this was a misstatement; Pelosi reaffirmed it during an interview with “Face the Nation.” When asked about whether the House would go through the hearings and then not vote to impeach Trump, Pelosi responded, “If the President has information that demonstrates his innocence in all of this, which we haven’t seen. … If he has information that is exculpatory, that means ex, taking away, culpa, blame, then we look forward to seeing it.” Boy am I glad she explained the word exculpatory to us. Otherwise, we all would have probably walked around thinking the word had something to do with an ex-girlfriend or something like that. Pelosi’s problem is that the President doesn’t have to prove anything. It is the House’s job to see if there is enough evidence to impeach the President and have him tried in the Senate.
The issue here is that Pelosi has completely turned the American justice system on its head. The idea of the American justice system, as laid out in the 5th and 6th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, is that one is innocent until proven guilty and while an impeachment inquiry isn’t the same as a criminal court, shouldn’t it be held to the same standards of due process and justice? The simple case could also be made that while the House’s impeachment inquiry isn’t a criminal court, it is actually more important. Remember, we are talking about removing the President of the United States from office. Doesn’t that seem kind of serious to you? This is NOT about whether you like or dislike the President. I’m not a huge fan of certain aspects of this President. However, he deserves a fair shake. Just because he is the President doesn’t mean that he should somehow lose the basic due process rights of an American citizen.
This case with the President isn’t the only attack we have seen on due process in recent memory. The #metoo movement came out a couple years ago and exposed sexual misconduct by those in authority within many industries. I personally think the #metoo movement started with a decent agenda and goal of outing disgusting people like Harvey Weinstein, who abused their power. However, I had one concern that came to fruition, which was how the #metoo movement started to quickly take any and all allegations of sexual impropriety as automatically true. This destroyed many a person’s career on the basis of mere allegations. I detailed my concerns in an article I wrote for the Conway Daily Sun back in December of 2017 titled, “Guilty until Proven Innocent.”
Then there was the attack on Supreme Court nominee and now Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanagh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court was very nearly derailed on the basis of several accusations of sexual misconduct. The allegations had essentially no corroborating witnesses or evidence and those that had/have known Kavanaugh throughout his life said that the accusations weren’t consistent with who he was as a person. The only side that brought any evidence during that fiasco was Kavanaugh producing whatever evidence he could to defend himself from 30 year old allegations. However, with nothing more than some questionable allegations, members of the left were ready to bar Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court.
The right to presumed innocence is a basic right that should be guaranteed to all Americans through the 5th and 6th Amendments. However, some people seem to be willing to push such important rights to the side just to advance a personal or political agenda. That should scare any law-abiding American and it should make us skeptical of the motives of those who promote such a blatant attack on our justice system.
Let me close with a warning about due process which was given to us by Founding Father John Adams; “It is of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished; for guilt and crimes are so frequent in the world, that all of them cannot be punished;…But when innocence itself, is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, ‘It is immaterial to me, whether I behave well or ill; for virtue itself, is no security.’ And if such a sentiment as this should take place in the mind of the subject, there would be an end to all security whatsoever.”
Isaac Hadam is an 18 year old who writes and speaks about the U.S. Constitution. He is the Vice-President of the Constitutional Awareness Pact, has written for the Conway Daily Sun, and is a contributing writer to the Weirs Times. For more info please visit www.constitutionalawarenesspact.webs.com.
