Lydia Williams's Government Blog

1. What is Nancy Pelosi's role in Congress? Nancy Pelosi's role in Congress is the Speaker of the House. 2. What is President Trump alleged to have done? President Trump is alleged to have attempted to have Ukraine interfere in the 2020 presidential election. He engaged in improper conversation with foreign leaders. 3. What is Nancy Pelosi's goal, since she does not want to impeach the president? Nancy Pelosi's goal is to pass a law that would work on governing the power of future presidents rather than focusing on impeaching Trump. 4. What does Pelosi say has harmed Congress's ability to investigate the Executive Branch? Pelosi says that the executive branch's lack of cooperation has harmed Congress's ability to investigate. 5. How did the Director of National Intelligence (who works for the president) violate the law? The Director of National Intelligence declined to relay the whistleblower's complaint to Congress, therefore violating the ...

1. How much of the House must agree to impeach a judge? How much of the Senate must agree to remove a judge? The majority of the House must agree to impeach a judge and a two-thirds supermajority of the Senate must agree to remove a judge from office. 2. Has this process ever been used before for the Supreme Court?  How many times?  There has only been one case where the process of impeachment has been used for the Supreme Court. However, they were only impeached, not removed. 3. Where in the Constitution does it set up the impeachment process? In Article II, Section IV of the Constitution provides for the removal of "the President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United State... on Impeachment for and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." 4. What are the reasons for the impeachments of the 5 most recent judicial impeachments? Harry Claiborne was impeached and then removed from office in 1986 for falsifying income tax re...

1. What was the Iowa Democratic Party's plan for changes to this year's Iowa Caucus? The Iowa Democratic Party's plan was to hold a "virtual caucus" over the phone system that works alongside the regular caucus. 2. Why has the Democratic National Committee decided to recommend rejecting these plans? The Democratic National Committee decided to recommend rejecting these plans because they were concerned that this over the phone system could be susceptible to hackers. 3. Why had the Iowa Democratic Party recommended these changes? The Iowa Democratic party had recommended the "virtual caucus" because the DNC had been criticizing the Iowa Democratic Party for not having their caucus accessible to the people who could not show up in person. But now, because the DNC is rejecting their idea, the fall out could be bad and potentially damaging to Iowa caucus. 4. Why is it so important that Iowa is the first contest?  How do they influence the nomination pr...

1. How much of the US population lives in a state or district with access to legal marijuana? More than a quarter of the US population lives in a state or district with access to legal marijuana. 2. Where in the US were the first places to make marijuana fully legal? Colorado and Washington 3. In the states where marijuana is legal, what differences might there be state to state?  And how are Vermont and DC different? Vermont and DC can grow marijuana but not buy or sell it legally. Other states like Illinois pardons people who deal marijuana illegally very easily.  4. What is the difference between marijuana legalization and marijuana decriminalization? Marijuana legalization is the removal of government-enforced penalties for possessing and using marijuana. Marijuana decriminalization decreases jail time for possessing or doing marijuana but leaves other penalties intact.  5. Why does the ACLU argue that marijuana prohibition is bad for the government? The ...