{"id":561,"date":"2019-12-18T01:13:44","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T06:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hlsorgs3stg.wpenginepowered.com\/democrats\/?p=561"},"modified":"2019-12-18T02:31:32","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T07:31:32","slug":"hls-dems-presidential-remarks-on-impeachment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/democrats\/2019\/12\/18\/hls-dems-presidential-remarks-on-impeachment\/","title":{"rendered":"3L President’s Remarks at the Impeach and Remove Rally in Cambridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the eve of the vote in the US House of Representatives, more than 600 communities across the country rallied to call for President Trump\u2019s impeachment and removal from office. The Harvard Law School Democrats were invited to participate in our local rally at Cambridge City Hall. Our 3L President, David Sackstein, shared the following words with those gathered:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good evening. For those of you whom I haven\u2019t yet met, my name is David Sackstein and I\u2019m here as a representative from the Harvard Law School Democrats.<\/p>\n

I am unbelievably grateful to be here tonight. I\u2019ve called this city my home for nearly a decade and I\u2019ve called Middlesex county my home since I was five years old. I\u2019ve always been inspired by our community\u2019s unique brand of patriotism and its desire to support policies and institutions built equally on justice and compassion. We\u2019re here tonight because we believe in the rule of law, and we share a desire to see our national community embrace the ideals that our local community strives to safeguard every day.<\/p>\n

As I near graduation, I think about what it will mean to be a lawyer in this county. The blessing conferred on graduating students at our law school is as follows: \u201cYou are ready to aid in the shaping and application of those wise restraints that make men free.\u201d Truth be told, the law isn\u2019t always wise, and justice isn\u2019t always blind. But perhaps that\u2019s the burden we\u2019re given. It\u2019s our duty to strive for freedom by shaping and applying the law so as \u201cto loose the chains of injustice\u201d but also to place wise restraints on those seeking to use unfettered power to their own unjust ends.<\/p>\n

As a law student who has been privileged to call Massachusetts home, I have always been inspired by the proud legal history of our Commonwealth. The Massachusetts Constitution is the oldest continuously effective written constitution in the world, and it served as a model for our country\u2019s federal constitution, which was ratified about nine years later. The document itself was revolutionary. Its first article, which proclaims that \u201call men are created free and equal\u201d served as the legal basis for a series of court cases through which courageous men and women successfully sued for their own freedom. Through these court cases, Massachusetts became the first state to abolish slavery fully.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something else about our Commonwealth\u2019s Constitution that\u2019s worth noting. Article 30 outlines our framework for the separations of powers. It reads: \u201cIn the government of this commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them: the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may have heard that last line quite a bit in the news lately. It first came to national prominence on October 20, 1973 when President Nixon discharged Archibald Cox, the Special Prosecutor designated to investigate the Watergate Scandal. Professor Cox responded to the news of his own dismissal with a powerful warning: \u201cWhether ours shall continue to be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people.\u201d That same warning holds true today.<\/p>\n

No American, and especially no American president should be above the law. The version of our country\u2019s story that we embrace here in Massachusetts is one in which the greatest sin a government can commit is to give unrestrained power to a single individual. That principle has proven time and time again to be worth fighting for and, yes, to be worth dying for. The House of Representatives will meet tomorrow to decide whether to charge President Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. If it votes yes, those charges will be at the very heart of a Senate trial to decide whether to remove President Trump from office.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019re all aware, the impeachment process will likely be swayed by partisan politics. Therefore, while we pray that it serves as a reminder to all Americans of what is at stake, we cannot and will not rest easily. It is not our community\u2019s tradition to leave the fate of our country in the hands of even our most competent and dedicated public servants. Rather, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives as empowered citizens. We join those across the world who believe in democracy and who believe in laws created for the people, by the people. We will do everything we can not only this year, but in every year to come. We\u2019ll make phone calls, send text messages, and draft emails to voters across the country. We\u2019ll contribute to candidates, causes, and institutions that embody our ideals. We\u2019ll knock on doors in our own community and, for those of us with the privilege to travel, we\u2019ll knock on doors in other communities farther from home. We\u2019ll march, and yes, we\u2019ll rally.<\/p>\n

Thank you all for being here tonight. Every single one of you continues to be an inspiration and model of patriotism for younger members of our community like me. We can and will make a difference, now and in the future, and I look forward to many years together in pursuit of justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the eve of the vote in the US House of Representatives, more than 600 communities across the country rallied […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1923,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11],"tags":[13,17,14,18],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-policy-blog","tag-democracy","tag-freedom","tag-impeachment","tag-justice"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5BJG3-93","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/democrats\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/democrats\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/democrats\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/democrats\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1923"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/democrats\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/democrats\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/democrats\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/democrats\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/democrats\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}