In the News: William C. Banks

"The Insurrection Act may be invoked only following an invasion, insurrection or widespread domestic violence," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "Only if states attempt to leave the Union would state defiance enable Insurrection Act authority. Otherwise the states control their citizens' health, welfare and safety."

"If martial law were invoked, the government would be conducted ad hoc by the president or a military commander based entirely on his or her opinion of what was needed to meet the emergency, unbound by any laws and with no transparency or public participation, and probably no accountability afterward," writes William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. 

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks says the changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process in the bill would increase accountability for abuses of the system and require the FBI to disclose more information to the court.

"One of the things to bear in mind about the procedure in the Senate is that there’s very little in the way of a legal road map. The Constitution says simply that the Senate should have the sole power to trial an impeachment," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

"This is an escalation for sure but retaliation, revenge or reprisals are unlawful at international law, not that Iran abides by international law," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "The risks are that the U.S. will play along and some escalatory act will be disproportionate to the circumstances, leading to something far worse," he adds.

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks said congressional action regarding FISA could further insert politics into a process that should be free of it. "All the politics that surrounded the headlines of this story would rear their ugly head again," he says. "It could end up with more amendments to FISA that do more harm than good."

"For those who believe in the rule of law and the importance of constitutional norms, his impeachment is nonetheless important because it upholds and reinforces the importance of those norms," says Professor Emeritus William Banks.

William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, says "stonewalling" by administration members is based on the presumption that courts will uphold White House executive privilege. "This ploy buys time and delays the House proceedings, but also may add another charge in the impeachment—obstruction of justice."

"If the public impeachment process builds the Ukraine abuse of office case clearly so that average Americans can see what the president did, it should lead to impeachment and a trial in the Senate," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "From there on, everything depends on events that have yet to occur."

"Rep. [Adam] Schiff is protected by the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution from being questioned 'in any other place,'" said William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "The protection clearly extends to the offending Tweets."

"If the allegations are true, the abuse of power is significant, and many members of Congress will be motivated to conduct impeachment proceedings," says William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

"It’s possible for Congress to enact—over a veto—funding restrictions on this or new funds that the president wants or needs. There’s lots of horse trading to come," says Professor Emeritus William Banks.

"The President, like every actor in our national government, is bound by the Constitution. Article II of the Constitution allows the President to take certain actions, but the list is quite short, especially compared to the long list of Congress's Article I powers," says William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

According to William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, information received from a foreign entity could be a little murky under the law, but if someone determined the information was of value, it would be unlawful.

William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs says, "the underlying tenor of the investigation was on the Russian activities themselves. Fundamentally, it was a counterintelligence investigation about Russian meddling in the election." 

William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, believes there is no "clear, positive legal authority" for active-duty U.S. troops to be at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks says the precedent concern is legitimate and "one of the biproducts of this episode might be to impose on Congress the determination to revise the underlying law and make it more difficult for any president in the future to use the mechanism. One of the biggest open areas in the law is that there are no criteria to decide what constitutes an emergency."