A review by mark_lm
Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide by Cass R. Sunstein

4.0

The author is called the most frequently cited American legal scholar in recent years, he is the former Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, he is a professor at Harvard Law School, and, in 1981, his boss asked him, as a young attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, to write a formal memorandum on the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution (that provides a mechanism for transfer of power in the event that the President is incapacitated). Ronald Reagan was shot, and incapacitated, one month after he completed the work. Professor Sunstein gives us citizens a review of the historical basis of impeachment, its significance to the founding fathers, a review of the schools of constitutional interpretation, a list of all the federal officers who have been impeached, and several imagined cases of what he believes to be examples where impeachment would be inappropriate, appropriate, or problematic. Some of his examples might have been taken from today’s newspapers. The book is clear, especially considering the complexity of the topic, and pertinent to current considerations.