Just when you thought that American politics couldn't get more dysfunctional, or as one commentator likes to say,
more stupid, along comes a special election in Alabama to fill one of its seats left vacant by Jeff Sessions becoming Attorney General. The election was already "special" in that it features a candidate who had already been removed from sitting on the Alabama Supreme Court because he refused to follow the U.S. Constitution. Now this candidate is accused of dating minors when he was a 30 year old government lawyers. As more and more women come forward telling the same story about this candidate, and as polls in Alabama seem to indicate that the voters of Alabama might still elect him (!!), leaders in the United States Senate have been openly saying they will not allow this candidate to sit in the Senate should he be elected.
Can do they do that, you might ask? Students in my American Constitutional Law course should know the answer to this, but I'd be surprised if they do as we spend all of about five seconds talking about this topic. Early on I tell students that the Constitution gives both the Senate and House the power to make internal rules and punish their own. Punishment can include removal.
As a
recent New York Times article correctly points out, while the Senate cannot refuse to accept this candidate should he be elected, it most surely can vote to remove him.
