HR 24 – AS INTRODUCED

2008 SESSION

08-2013

03/05

HOUSE RESOLUTION 24

A RESOLUTION petitioning Congress to commence impeachment procedures.

SPONSORS: Rep. Hall, Hills 5

COMMITTEE: State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs

ANALYSIS

This resolution petitions Congress to commence impeachment procedures against President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

08-2013

03/05

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Eight

A RESOLUTION petitioning Congress to commence impeachment procedures.

Whereas, section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of Parliamentary Practice states that an impeachment may be set in motion by the United States House of Representatives by charges transmitted from the legislature of a state; and

Whereas, the right to vote, being the right that protects all other rights, and the right which ratified the Constitutions of our state and our country, is a right that is collectively inalienable, in that elections may not be generally suspended or terminated; and

Whereas, the executive branch is responsible for enforcing and guaranteeing these rights; and

Whereas, President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney have engaged in a pattern and practice of threatening litigation against states and people who refuse to institute mechanisms of voting that require votes to be counted in trade secrecy and outside the observation and control of citizens; and

Whereas, secret vote counting shifts control of elections from citizens to the executive branch, including the Election Assistance Commission, and any person capable of altering the trade secret software; and

Whereas, President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney have committed high crimes and misdemeanors by repeatedly and intentionally violating the United States Constitution and other laws of the United States, particularly the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which is the “supreme law of the land” as a treaty ratified under Article VI of the United States Constitution; and

Whereas, President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney, in subversion of the law, have acted to strip Americans of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention of citizens, without access to legal counsel, without charge, and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the President of a United States citizen as an “enemy combatant”; and

Whereas, President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney have ordered and authorized the Attorney General of the United States to override judicial orders for the release of detainees under United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)) jurisdiction, even though the judicial officer, after full hearing, has determined that a detainee is held wrongfully by the government; and

Whereas, President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney have at least 30 times ordered the National Security Agency to intercept and otherwise record international telephone and other signals and communications by United States citizens without warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court, duly constituted by Congress in 1978, and have designated certain United States citizens as “enemy combatants,” all in violation of constitutional guarantees of due process; and

Whereas, President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney have admitted that they willfully and repeatedly violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and boasted that they would continue to do so, each violation constituting a felony; and

Whereas, President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney have violated the United Nations Charter and other treaties prohibiting aggressive war, by invading Iraq without just cause or provocation, and have misled the Congress by deliberate or negligent falsehoods to obtain the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, Public Law 107-243; and

Whereas, President George W. Bush has now admitted that his 20-year “War on Terror” includes a permanent United States presence in Iraq and the Middle East, consisting of a lavish embassy and dozens of military bases; and

Whereas, President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney continue to authorize the use of depleted-uranium (DU) munitions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the use of which spreads radioactive contamination to non-targets, including innocent civilians, animals, food, and water sources, and the use of which has been declared illegal by the United Nations Subcommittee on Human Rights; and

Whereas, President George W. Bush has subverted the laws of our nation, in whole or in part, through the use of “signing statements” on more than 1,200 occasions, unprecedented in United States history; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives:

That the House of Representatives of the State of New Hampshire hereby submits that the actions and admissions of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney constitute ample grounds for their impeachment, and that the House of Representatives of the State of New Hampshire has good cause for submitting charges to the United States House of Representatives under section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of Parliamentary Practice, as grounds for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney; and

That the House of Representatives of the State of New Hampshire further submits that Articles of Impeachment should charge that President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney have violated their oaths to execute faithfully the office of President and Vice President to the best of their ability to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States; and

That in all of this, President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney have acted in a manner contrary to their trust as President and Vice President, subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the State of New Hampshire and of the United States; and

That President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney, by such conduct, warrant impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any offices of honor, trust, or profit under the United States; and

That New Hampshire’s Senators and Representatives in the United States Congress are hereby requested to cause to be instituted in the Congress of the United States proper proceedings for the investigation of the activities of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney, to the end that they may be impeached and removed from such office; and

That copies of this resolution be forwarded by the house clerk to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and to each member of the New Hampshire congressional delegation.