Trump impeachment: Pelosi reclaims the Constitution for liberals and today's America The Trump impeachment is spotlighting the Founders' fears of foreign influence on US security and leaders, and turning liberals into originalists.

Alexander Heffner | Opinion contributor

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There is one indisputable fact about the impeachment of President Donald Trump that should be clear to all Americans: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is making the Constitution great again. Furthermore, she is charting a path forward for the Democratic Party to once again be the guardians of civil society and democracy — and to make the liberals on the Supreme Court, and on the streets of America, the true originalists.

Last week Pelosi told the public and her congressional colleagues that she would not be trying to corral House votes on impeachment. "People have to come to their own conclusions," she said. "They've seen the facts as presented in the Intelligence Committee. They've seen the Constitution. They know it. They take an oath to protect and defend it.”

That is the point. Abuse of power and obstruction are the cumulative law breaking and corrupt actions of the Trump years, from the Russian and Ukrainian affairs to Trump's violations of the emoluments clauses, relentless attacks on the First Amendment and authoritarian fantasy about tearing up the Constitution and serving for 29 years. If you think these are Trump’s jokes on the media, "Demagoguery and Democracy" author Patricia Roberts-Miller reminds us that World War II Axis villains started their wars against humanity masking autocratic dystopian dreams in comedy.

Foreign powers alarmed Founders

By contrast, Pelosi has revived the Founders’ original intent, their established textual concern about foreign interference, bribery and influence adversely affecting the welfare of American citizens. Trump’s violations are unbecoming a president of the United States.

Not only was this concern about foreign powers fortified constitutionally, America’s first president, George Washington, reiterated in his Farewell Address that his successors must never become subjected to the dictates of foreign governments. Had Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison or any of the framers heard an American presidential candidate — and then president — implore adversaries to hack our own American institutions, they would have considered that treason.

There has been a bogus contention over too many years that the textualist view of the Constitution is only the 18th century ratified document instead of the text as it organically and authentically matured. This has always been a false choice. You are an originalist by reading the document, in its entire meaning and its entire body of precedent over decades and centuries.

This is what Pelosi has done, and her timing is preempting what could well be partisan Supreme Court decisions that deny the authority of Congress to subpoena witnesses and shield the president’s taxes from congressional and public scrutiny. The impeachment articles defend both federalism and the separation of powers, in which the Republicans believed until Trump’s authoritarianism cannibalized them.

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Now there is reason for Pelosi to fear these faux textualists will ignore the original document of which they have feigned infatuation and rule in Trump’s favor. This fear is justified. In the Senate, McConnell's decision to coordinate an impeachment defense with the White House and Graham's refusal to be an impartial juror are, like Trump's conduct, the opposite of the checks and balances the Founders envisioned.

Democrats are the new originalists

Trump appointees to the bench have been proven retrograde, refusing to acknowledge many historical constitutional protections, and even the legal authority of Brown v. Board of Education. Roberts and company have also ruled against the centerpiece of American life: Voting. After deciding that Ohio can remove citizens from the rolls for not voting, the Supreme Court has emboldened disenfranchisement in Wisconsin, Georgia and elsewhere. The framers would laugh that anti-democratic outcome out of town. And they’d be appalled at the ruling to uphold a Muslim travel ban that excluded Saudi Arabia, the country that deployed the hijackers against us on 9/11 and to which Trump has business ties.

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Pelosi and her new originalists know it is past time for jurists and elected representatives to assert this basic truth: The Constitution, with the Bill of Rights, 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, reflects the norms and laws by which we live. It is Trump and Attorney General William Barr who behave like third-world autocrats and want to undermine the literal meaning of the Constitution of the United States. But Pelosi is determined not to let them.

“A republic if you can keep it,” Pelosi said, quoting Benjamin Franklin, when she opened the impeachment inquiry in September. That’s also the title of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch’s book. But the mantle of the Founders does not belong to Gorsuch, or to Chief Justice John Roberts, or those farcically pretending to be textualists. Pelosi is rightfully reclaiming it for the American people, a majority of whom voted against Trump in 2016, and half of whom now favor his removal from office.

Impeachment is the beginning of liberal originalism to safeguard law and order in America. And we'll have Speaker Pelosi to thank for it.

Alexander Heffner is host of "The Open Mind" on PBS and coauthor of “A Documentary History of the United States.” Follow him on Twitter: @heffnera