Karl Racine Quotes
What are we to do? Sit back and let the President police himself?
Trump refused to divest himself from his hotels and golf courses and received money from States and Foreign countries for their officials who paid the very high rates compared to other hotels and even golf courses trying to gain access and curry favor with the U. S. President. Once Tump became President, he raised the rates for his Hotel on Pennsuylvania Avenue not far from the White House from $250 a night to $500 a night. He also similarly increased the prices of a number of his other properties.
Karl Racine, Press Conference announcing that he and the Attorney General of the District of Columbia had jointly filed a Federal lawsuit (with the Attorney General of Maryland) charging that President Donald Trump was in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution which prohibits the President from receiving or benefitting from funds given by States or foreign nations, June 12, 2017
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The debate was about the unlimited pardon power of the President. Madison argued that the check was the impeachment power. However, Presidents had tended to make large numbers of pardons just before they leave office so the impeachment power works only as a check for the beginning and middle part of their term.
Senator Grimes thought that Andrew Johnson was a terrible President, but when the House of Representatives impeached President Johnson and he was tried before the Senate, Grimes voted for acquittal. His reason for the his vote was he thought that the Constitution did not provide for the removal if a President just because he has “Unacceptable.” Johnson survived removal from office by a single vote and had Grimes not been so principled about the Constitution, Johnson would have been removed from office. On the other hand, Johnson was a terrible President and many of the nations racial problems in later years emanated from his actions and inactions while in office.
In the 1952 steel seizure case the justice department took the position that the President's actions were not reviewable by the courts. The judge ruled against Baldridge and the government.
In 1953 the Senator had proposed a Constitutional amendment that would severely curtail the treaty making powers of the President. President Eisenhower actively opposed Bricker and the right wing of his own party. The Senator was outraged. Despite Bricker’s complaining, the public and the Congress sided with the President.
The view that the Supreme Court was the final arbiter of constitutional controversies was not held in early America.
Powell was the Secretary of State and Addington kept advising the administration that as long as the President was acting in defense of the country in his capacity as Commander in Chief, he did not have to obey any existing laws that had been Constitutionally passed which in the opinion of the President restricted or limited the President or the executive branch. Addington was an attorney and Assistant to the Vice President, but he was given much responsibility for administration policy. Powell the Secretary of State of the Administration could not have disagreed more and although most politicians including Republicans disagreed with the Addington thesis, Powell was one of the few Republicans to criticize the Addington position.
Karl Anthony Racine is a Haitian-American lawyer and politician. He is the first independently elected attorney general of the District of Columbia, a position he has held since January 2015. Before that, he was the managing partner of Venable LLP.
